Ciocca Center for Business, Ethics, and Society Blog

June 17, 2013

Summer Business 2013, Week 3: Credit Card Bills, M&Ms and Cosmo magazine

After learning about some of the technical side of business last week, Week 3 of Summer Business switched gears and worked through business ethics, personal finance, global business, advertising and personal branding.

Bill Liesman ’72, on Monday, and Tom Patton ’86, on Wednesday, anchored the week with discussions of business ethics. The students dove into case studies and found themselves debating amongst themselves the ethics behind business scenarios involving hiring, firing, expense reports, etc.

Prof. Anderton introduced the students to Personal Finance and Mutual Funds. Not only did he give lots of great tips on how the students should manage their money (i.e. avoid credit card debt!) but he also introduced them to websites and resources that could be used for researching mutual funds. The student groups were all assigned a specific fund, too, and then given time to research the fund and present their findings to the entire student group.

Thursday was jam packed and full of exciting sessions. Stu Graham ’67 spent the morning regaling the students with stories about his experience with an international construction company. Particularly interesting was the ethical plan that Stu described as being in place at his company; everyone was impressed to think about how ethical business practices can – and are – implemented even in large global companies.

Then, Thursday afternoon Jim Mullins ’95, Global Initiatives Director at Mars Inc, got everyone’s blood sugar up with the 100lbs of chocolate bars he brought with him. Jim talked to the students about what it’s like to work for a large private family-owned company. The students got to hear about, and sample, a variety of Limited Edition candies and got to work as teams on a case study to come up with a creative solution to a problem from several decades ago.

Rounding out a full week of classes, Friday morning was split between a session entitled “Getting Your First Job”, with Mary Donahue Quinlan ’76 from Cosmopolitan magazine, and a session on Advertising with Julie Halpin ’84. Both sessions were incredibly well received and very interactive.

Mary kicked the day off being brutally honest with the students about what they need on their resumes (think: internships not just ice cream scooping), how to write a cover letter (think: brief and readable not a term paper) and what to wear to that first interview (ironed not wrinkled and, for the girls, definitely not white boots). She also stressed to the students the importance of follow-up. I don’t think any student who was in that session will ever again conclude a cover letter with “…and I look forward to hearing from you.” Follow-up is on you, Mary told the students.

Then Julie had the challenge of being the final session on Friday afternoon at the end of a long week of classes. However, it s clear that her information on advertising got a lot of the students very excited. After giving the students an overview of the industry the students started diving into actual current advertising campaigns. Julie’s experience having started and run her own firm elicited a lot of questions from the students and it certainly seemed like her session quite likely sparked newfound interest with some of the students.

Julie will be back with the students on Monday morning for another half day session and she sent them off to the weekend with some homework: first, create a new product in an assigned category and put together a brief campaign and, second, find a favorite tv commercial and bring it in for “show-and-tell”. Check back in the next post for the results!

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 10, 2013

Week 2 SBP 2013: Finance, Sales and the New England Patriots!

This year’s Summer Business students are now halfway through the program and are continuing to impress all of the alumni teachers who are coming through. With Week 2 all wrapped up, the students have now received an overview of several more technical areas of business this week: accounting, finance, sales and marketing.

Prof. Chu kicked off the week with Megan Williams ’07 to teach the session on accounting and “Understanding Financial Statements.” The students had the chance to examine the financial statements for Pandora and get a sense of what you can learn by looking at these documents.

The rest of the week built on this session as the students dug into the nuts and bolts of finance, sales techniques and marketing. While some of the material was challenging, the response from the alumni teachers was unanimous: the students were impressive, engaging and did a great job digging in. Particularly fun? When the students were put on the spot and had to try to role play using the SPIN sales technique that they had just learned.

Then, Friday was the fun day – a field trip to Gillette Stadium to learn about the business of sports! While we didn’t get to see Tom Brady (much to some of the students’ chagrin!) the students receive a comprehensive tour of the stadium, a chance to walk around on the field and spotted the New England Revolution practicing. Then Jim Wilson ’93, VP of Finance, spent a couple of hours talking with the group about the business side of sports. Sitting in a conference room full of Patriots pictures, it was hard not to be inspired and excited about this side of business. Check out the Prebiz Facebook page (link below) for pictures from the trip.

On tap for next week? Ethics, Personal Finance, Adverstising and Creating Your Personal Brand….2 weeks down, 2 to go!

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 5, 2013

Summer Business 2013 is underway…

The 2013 edition of Holy Cross’ Summer Business Program is off and running…1.5 weeks into the 4 week program! Today the students have time to spend working in teams on their 4-week long group project, so it seemed like a good time for an update on how the program is going thus far:

We kicked off SBP on Tuesday of last week. 29 eager and committed students moved back to campus to spend a month of their summer vacation in pursuit of business knowledge and so far they’ve really impressed all of the teachers. Last week started with Clint Greenleaf ’97 running a session on “What is a Business? And how do I start one?” Not only was Clint able to talk to the students about technical information but he also gave some good etiquette tips from his book The Unwritten Rules of the Workplace.

Day 2 was a big day – the students spent the entire day working with Moira Garvey ’78 and Mary Ann Rettig-Zucchi, from Jupiter Consulting Group, to explore their leadership styles and how to enhance their performance and engagement when working in groups. In advance of this session the students had several pre-work assignments, including an online assessment and soliciting letters of character reference from people who knew them well. This information, coupled with interactive activities like the Group Tower Building exercise made for an enlightening and interactive day. The students were then able to take what they learned about themselves as leaders into that evening’s dinner when they were introduced to the Team Executives and received the details of the team project that they’ll be working on over the course of the next several weeks. (Stay tuned for details regarding who wins the cash prize!)

Days 3 & 4 we were back in the classroom focusing on “Faith, Values and Ethics” with William Messenger, “Corporate Frameworks & Tax Implications” with Jack Malley ’77 and “Career Planning & Interview Skills” with Pam Ahearn, Director of Holy Cross’ Summer Internship Program and Megan Chester, Assistant Director of Career Counseling. I think it’s fair to say that the students were tired by the end of Week 1 but everyone seemed to agree that they were wasting no time absorbing all the information that they possibly could.

Hopefully all the students groups are currently huddled somewhere on campus, actively engaged in their team projects, and taking advantage of the time they have to work together! The Team Execs are back on campus tomorrow night for dinner so I’m sure they’ll be looking to see what progress has been made…and I know everyone here in the Prebusiness Office is excited to see what innovated ideas this year’s group of SBP students comes up with.

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

April 8, 2013

First Annual HCEG Shark Tank a Success: Great ideas & How to make $1 million…

Last evening’s First Annual Shark Tank competition, sponsored by the Holy Cross Entrepreneurs Group and Ciocca Office of Entrepreneurial Studies, was a resounding success. With registration somewhat uncertain right up until the event started, no one in the room was totally sure what to expect, but by the end of the night the feeling was unanimous – these Holy Cross students had some really great ideas!

The night kicked off with pizza and soda and the room was filled not just with competitors but spectators who showed up to see what their classmates had managed to come up with for ideas. Seniors Andrew Coury and Ed Pesce, co-chairs of the HC Entrepreneurs Group on campus, were in charge of planning this event and they recruited quite an esteemed panel of alumni judges to give feedback – both positive and negative – to the student teams participating. These judges included: Mary Moran ’77, Patrick Sansonetti ’93, John Schiffmann ’82, Chris Stephenson ’97 and Bryan Sparkes ’04.

Unlike the television version of Shark Tank, the HC competition didn’t involve a lot of yelling but that didn’t stop the judges from asking critical questions and really challenging the students to think about how, exactly, their business would work.

In all, there were 5 pitches – two teams and three individuals – and the ideas included a dorm delivery service where students could order necessities and have them delivered in under an hour, a service to help people more successfully embrace the tailgating experience, an autodetailing company that would come to your home or work to clean your car, and a video game where the player assumed the character of a dog and faced “dog-like” challenges.

However, at the end of the night, it was freshman Ben Kaplan who walked away with the $100 prize for the top idea. Not only had Kaplan clearly spent a great deal of time thinking about how, exactly, his idea for a new social media platform would work but he had already come up with a clever acronym for the name of the product and had a logo. (Specifics are being omitted because Kaplan is in the process of working to actually get this idea off the ground and this blogger doesn’t want to be accused of “over sharing”!) To give you an idea of how impressed the judges were with Kaplan’s presentation, let’s just say that when he was awarded top prize one of the alumni judges offered him the chance to get in a room with real investors and do a formal pitch.

The other great thing about this event was not only did the students give impressive presentations, but the alumni all took the opportunity to use their professional experiences to give the students in the ro0m insight and advice on how to go about launching a successful idea. One of the favorite take aways from the night was Chris Stephenson’s advice on how to make $1 million: “Figure out how to make $1. Then do it one million times.” Sounds pretty simple, right?

Overall, a great night. The level of excitement was definitely high as people left the competition and lots of people indicated that they are looking forward to seeing this grow into an annual event at Holy Cross. If the ideas that keep coming in the future are as strong as last night’s, there’s no doubt that Shark Tank will become even more competitive and, hopefully, attract a growing number of students to take the risk, come up with an idea and participate.

Thank you to all the judges, student participants and spectators for taking the time to come out and we’ll see you again next year for Shark Tank Round #2.

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
Associate Director, Entrepreneurial Studies

March 7, 2013

Exploring Global Business and Corporate Social Responsibility with Green Mountain Coffee-Keurig on Day 4

Karen Gallagher, Senior Marketing Director at Green Mountain Coffee – Keurig and mother of a current Holy Cross junior, braved the snow on the fourth day of ELW 2013 to make sure the students could learn about global business and corporate social responsibility (or, CSR). As was a theme of the week, the day was focused on group work. Karen kicked off the session giving an overview of GMCR/Keurig, highlighting the company’s mission and values, the way they communicate (or, don’t communicate) these values to all invested constituencies – employees, customers, farmers, etc – and the challenges that GMCR/Keurig is facing. She talked about a couple of particularly interesting initiatives that really showcased how, as an employer, GMCR/Keurig differentiates itself, including the fact that all employees are allotted 52 hours per year to do service work at the location of their choice. As students at Holy Cross, where the idea of being “men and women for others” is important, you could see a lot of the students intrigued that a company would do something like that. Then, Karen also talked a lot about the importance of marketing, using examples of particularly effective television ads, to show how good marketing can clearly communicate who a company is and what they stand for and, as a result, build brand recognition and loyalty.

With the overview complete, Karen sent the students off to work in their teams to put together a presentation on how GMCR/Keurig could to a better job communicating its initiatives internally and externally as well as how the company could create a sustainable competitive advantage. The students were charged with creating a presentation highlighting where the current strengths were and then suggesting tangible action items that could enhance GMCR/Keurig’s communications.

With just two hours to work on this presentation, the results were impressive. The students suggested things like revamping the K-cup box to really highlight what the company is doing, creating an “Employee of the Year” award highlighting someone who really embodies GMCR/Keurig’s commitment to CSR and coming up with ways to better facilitate everyone participating in service opportunities and marketing those experiences so customers are aware they are happening. All of the teams agreed that the “stuff” GMCR/Keurig is doing is positive – they are committed and really incorporate their corporate values into the business, but they need to figure out a way to make the initiatives clearer and broadcast them to a wider audience.

The day wrapped up with an exciting surprise – the two teams of students that Karen deemed the winners of the presentations were awarded their own Vue single cup brewers, the latest product by Keurig! Some of the students asked to have them shipped to Holy Cross – so they’ll be ready to help them cram through the end of the semester – and a couple of the students asked them to be sent home as a nice surprise for their lucky parents!

The snow is going to roll in tomorrow so we’ll see what that means for Day 5 of ELW but, regardless, we’ve had 4 jam packed days of learning and teamwork and I think all of the students have already learned quite a bit about both careers in business and leadership skills.

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

Helene

Helene Horan
Associate Director, Entrepreneurial Studies

March 6, 2013

Day 3 of ELW: How to be ethical and why you shouldn’t buy a BMW.

Day 3 of ELW 2013 focused on leading a company and handling “ethical pitfalls”. Led by Tom Patton ’86, President and CEO of CASMED, and Carolyn Risoli ’86, former president of Marc by Marc Jacobs and current principal at CRisoli Consulting, the student teams spent the day reading real case studies that the executives had written and debating among themselves what the ethical questions were and how they should be decided.

The afternoon was particularly interesting as the students had to read a number of brief scenarios and then respond with how they would have acted. Tom and Carolyn started by posing the question of: If you take a company pen home from work, is that stealing? What about 5 pens? 10? A box? Your desk chair? The students quickly realized how tricky business ethics can become as most of them thought that taking a pen wasn’t necessarily stealing but saw their logic unravel as Tom challenged them to thinking about larger items. Another similar scenario dealt with the question of business reimbursements: If your company gives you a $7 cab ride home if you work until after 7 o’clock, is it ok to take that cab ride to a restaurant rather than home? What about going out with your friends and then getting the cab? The debate was lively, with lots of different points of view expressed, and Tom and Carolyn were able to weigh in with how they’ve actually navigated these situations in their roles as executives.

In addition to addressing business ethics, Tom and Carolyn talked to the students about the importance of being careful in business and how quickly things can change. Tom offered the advice that you need to be sure to live within your means, and be financially careful, because as quickly as things can get good, they can take a turn for the worse. Citing examples of young business people he knew, he cautioned the students against falling into the trap of wanting the biggest house and the flashiest car. “The BMW can wait until later,” he said.

The other big message of the day? Tom and Carolyn talked about how it’s easy to be ethical when things are good. What’s important is making sure to remain ethical even when it’s challenging to do so. They encouraged the students to think about two things: first, would you want to see your actions reported in the New York Times? And, second, would you be proud to tell the person you most admire – spouse, child, parent, friend, etc – about what you did? If you’re not comfortable with both, they said, you need to re-think what you’re doing.

Overall, another really interesting day and one that got the students thinking more about what to do when things aren’t going well and how important it is for a leader to be steadfast in what he or she believes is right!

Tonight the students are off to Boston for the HC Alumni Entrepreneur Group’s Networking Session. All of the students in ELW have been challenged to meet at least two new people tonight, so we’ll see how they do…

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

Helene

Helene Horan
Associate Director, Entrepreneurial Studies

March 6, 2013

Should company culture be a primary or secondary concern in the business world?

Day 2 of the 2013 Executive Leadership Workshop focused on the importance of business culture in creating a sustainable business. Tom Brennan ’86, CEO of Goshido, ran the students through a series of group exercises to get them thinking about whether or not a company’s leadership team should make company culture a primary or secondary priority.

The students engaged in two debates: the first debate was focused on the question of whether company culture should be primary or secondary. However, it was the secondary debate that really got the students going! This debate was based on a Harvard Business School case study about a crisis on Northwest Airlines where customers were stranded on a grounded plane for 8+ hours due to inclimate weather. There were three teams: the customers, the CEOs and the Board of Directors.

Their challenge? The three groups had to try to appease one another – the customers wanted a settlement, the CEOs wanted to keep their jobs and the Board was worried about publicity.

Tom Brennan’s goal was to get the students thinking about the challenges that emerge in companies, particularly between different groups of constituencies, and to understand how communications need to go in order for a company to be sustainable. Tom was pretty clear that in his opinion company culture had to be a primary focus. However, after getting all riled up in the debate, I’m not sure all of the students were complete sure that they agreed.

Today’s topic: Business Ethics. The students are currently mid-discussion of whether or not it’s ok to take a pen home from work. Is that stealing? Or, is it ok…after all, it’s just a pen? Check back tomorrow to see how ethical this group really is!

March 5, 2013

Ideas for new apps created on Day 1 of the 2013 Executive Leadership Workshop!

Yesterday kicked off the 2013 Executive Leadership Workshop and one of the things the students definitely learned was that working a full day (they started at 8:30 am and were busy until 7 pm) is challenging!

Peter George ’81 started off the week talking about how to start and build a business. He was accompanied by Geoff Oblak and Gary Kramer. The students’ challenge for the day: work with their teams to come up with an educational app and then pitch it to the day’s three executive teachers who were acting as Venture Capitalists.

While all the teams came up with interesting ideas, two teams were ultimately rewarded funding: Michael Biggins ’16, Claudia Bechtold ’15, Maggie MacMullin ’16 and Michael Tucker ’14 came up with the idea for BookChat, an online database for professors to post excerpts of readings and where students can engage in online discussions. Nolan Kiernan ’15, Matt Devine ’15, Brendan McGill ’14 and Sophie Haggerty ’16 came up with the idea for SyncroNote, an online note taking software with an audio recording technology. I’m not going to include too many details, in case any of these teams decide to really run with the idea, but the judges were all impressed.

Stay posted for updates on the rest of this week’s workshop. Today’s topic is “Using Culture and Values to Build a Sustainable Business”. Currently the students are split up in groups prepping for a debate on whether culture should be a primary or secondary concern in companies. We’ll see who comes up with the most persuasive argument…

February 19, 2013

Alumni in the Real Estate Industry Discuss Market Statistics and the Importance of Thank You Notes

Last night a group of 10 Holy Cross alumni joined a group of students in Hogan to discuss what real estate really is, the various career paths available within the industry and how students interested in real estate can get a foot in the door. The alumni present were: Colin Blair ’00 of Cushman & Wakefield, Justin Blair ’03 of The Monomoy Group, Brendan Cohn ’03 of Jones Lang LaSalle, Paul Formichelli ’96 of Jones Lang LaSalle, Jim Grady ’91 of Synergy Investments, Matt Harvey ’02 of Cresa Partners, Chuck O’Connor ’78 of Cassidy Turley, Bryan Sparkes ’03 of Jones Lang LaSalle and Kyle Trodden ’05 of Hudson Advisors. They hold a variety of roles within the industry including commercial broker, residential broker, corporate services, construction management but during the conversation it was clear that all of the jobs had some key similarities like how no two days are ever the same and the importance of being able to effectively manage relationships.

Not surprisingly a big topic of conversation at this panel was the value of a Holy Cross education and the Holy Cross alumni network. The panelists talked about how competitive the business and how they are constantly fielding phone calls from young professionals who are looking for a job. Several of them said that, for a Holy Cross student, they can always make time but otherwise, there aren’t enough hours in the day to meet with all the interested candidates.

There was also quite a bit of discussion about professional degree programs – where the best ones were, what different programs entailed and whether they are worth it. While there were varied opinions on these programs the general consensus was that, in the real estate industry, you should graduate college and work first, then think about a graduate degree later. The alumni all seemed to agree that much of the training that takes place in real estate is really learned as you go by watching folks who’ve been in the job longer than you have.

What were some key takeaways?

1. If you want to be in real estate, especially brokerage, you have to be willing to work hard. You are constantly selling – you start with selling yourself to try to get a job and, from there, you are constantly selling as you try to generate business.

2. Show up to interviews prepared. It’s not enough to say, “I will work hard and am a good kid.” If you’re going to a real estate interview – even if it’s an “informational interview” – know something about real estate.

3. Proofread your emails. Keep the exclamation points minimal. No smiley faces.

4. Write thank you notes. There was some debate about email thank yous versus handwritten thank yous. As some who is partial to handwritten thank you notes, I’ll say that the alum advocating for them noted that he gets hundreds of emails daily. Thank you emails get deleted. Handwritten notes stay on your desk for weeks. Could come in handy if a few weeks after you meet a position unexpectedly opens up….

Thanks to the alumni for taking the time to come talk to us and we look forward to having them come back to campus again soon.

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

January 31, 2013

“The Ethics Guy” Welcomes Students Back to Campus!

Just two days in to the Spring 2013 semester, Bruce Weinstein, “The Ethics Guy”, joined Holy Cross students here on campus to run a workshop focused on ethical intelligence. Dr. Weinstein’s visit was co-sponsored by the COES Entrepreneurial Studies Program, the Economics department and the McFarland Center & Barrett Programming.

The workshop focused on an “Ethics Quiz” that he has created to help people gauge their ethical intelligence. Dr. Weinstein really got the room going as he asked questions out loud like, “If you saw someone cheating on an exam, and no one else did, what would you do?” or “If you’re riding in a car and the driver starts texting, do you tell them to stop? Say nothing? Or demand to get out of the vehicle?” Students were talking at their tables and then vocalizing a range of opinions on all the different questions, which created a lively conversation.

However, my favorite part was when Dr. Weinstein asked if anyone in the room feels under-appreciated. He said part of being ethically intelligent means thinking about our actions and “if they are caring”. Three students in the room admitted to feeling under-appreciated so Dr. Weinstein called them to the front of the room and had all the attendees give them a 1-minute standing ovation for being awesome!

Overall, it was a great workshop – lots of discussion and lots of active engagement. Hopefully a lot of what we talked about will come in to play later this winter when the Business Ethics Symposium gets underway here on campus.

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