*NEW* Workshop – Coming Fall 2016

Mark Your Calendars! Fall 2016 Global Supply Chain workshop

The COES Prebusiness Office is excited to announce this new two-day alumni-led workshop designed to help you acquire hands-on experience in understanding how a global supply chain gets things made and delivered to where customers are. It is a great opportunity to connect with alumni and learn about the cycle of everything we wear, eat, drive, and consume. The alumni below offer different perspectives meaning you will also be exposed to the political, cultural, and ethical issues inherent in managing a global supply chain.

The Global Supply Chain workshop will be two days held over fall break and is open to all majors/class years.

Program Dates: Monday & Tuesday, October 10 & 11, 2016

Online Registration Deadline: Thursday, September 29, 2016 by 11:59PM

REGISTER HERE!!!

This new workshop counts towards the business workshops milestone for the COES Professional Certificate Program.  And Yes! We said alumni-led. Below are the alumni that you will have a chance to network with and learn from:

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(Left) William Liesman ’72  is an International Business Consultant for Liesman Consulting in Winchester, California.

(Center Left) Peter Mondani ’79 is the Senior Human Resources leader-Global Risk Management at General Electric Co. He is responsible for financial leadership development and human resources for over 16,000 finance employees from entry level through senior executives. He is also part of the The Holy Cross Gridiron Club Leadership Council.

(Center Right) Ted Pidcock ’88 is the founder and manager an apparel company, Chillybears. He also developed and sold a multi-location retail concept called Custom Caps as well as developed Teddy the Dog which is distributed in the US and Canada.

(Right) Cynthia White ’95 is the President & Lead Consultant at the Ceatro Group.  The Ceatro Group is one of the leading research and consulting firms.  For more than 17 years she has been helping organizations achieve greater results internally and externally.  She has consulting and research experience in North America, Europe, Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and Africa.

COES STUDENT PROFILE: Casey Carty ’18

Carty Name: Casey Carty
Class Year: 2018
Major: Political Science

Internship Position: Event and Social Media Coordinator, Water Rising Project

Are you registered for the COES Professional Program? 
I am in the COES Professional Program and have participated in a number of prebusiness programs including: the Fullbridge Program, co-chair of the Agency (advertising club), on the student board of the annual Women in Business Conference as well as working in the COES Office as an intern.

How has the COES programming influenced or connected you to your future career plans / goals?
The COES Program, in particular Fullbridge, has influenced my future career in allowing me to test all branches of business and discover where my strengths and weakness lie.

While looking for your internship, what services did you use at the Center for Career Development?
I visit Megan Chester on a regular basis and with her help, I now have the perfect resume! The Center for Career Development has  also helped me reach out to alumni and potential connections I want to make via email and well as on LinkedIn.

What skills did you gain from your involvement with COES and how have they added to your professionalism?
The COES Program grants me the ability to explore the business world while still receiving a liberal arts education. Professor Chu (and the WIB Conference) promises all students that at Holy Cross we can major in anything and succeed in business. Throughout the program I have learned how to market myself and my strengths to future employers.

What is one piece of advice that you would give to freshmen considering a business career?
Find what you’re good at and hone your skills!

Photo Booth Fun: Women in Business Celebrates 10th Anniversary!

Over 200 alumnae and students celebrated the tenth anniversary of the annual Women in Business conference at the College of the Holy Cross this past Saturday, November 7, 2015.  Aimee Bell ’88, keynote and Deputy Editor of Vanity Fair magazine, spoke to the theme of “Major in Anything – Succeed in Business: Creating Your Platform for Success.”

Read more on the event from the review by the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.

Now to the fun stuff… and ladies – you are photogenic!

 

 

Thanks to our student photographers, Colleen Paddock ’16 & Erin Cunningham ’16, for making the photo booth possible! Great shots! Looking forward, save the date for next year: Saturday, November 5, 2016.

Cassie Gevry
Associate Director, Entrepreneurial Studies

Boston Networking Event: 10/7/2015

HCEG_Alum

Mark your calendars: the Holy Cross Entrepreneurs Group’s Alumni Networking Event is on Wednesday, October 7th!

The COES Pre-Business Office is presenting current students the opportunity to connect with alumni who are directly involved in start-ups or are involved with a business looking for start-ups as customers. Held at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, the event will consist of a general networking period, allowing students to speak with alumni about their experiences, and a Q&A session with a panel of four Holy Cross alumni.

The COES Pre-Business Office offers at least one networking event per semester, and has been offering this particular event since 2007. Professor David Chu suggests creating a business card for yourself (including your name, class year, email address, and cell phone number), and that you bring a few copies of your resume. In Prof. Chu’s opinion, “the most important thing for a student to ask is, ‘What do you do, and how did you get there from Holy Cross?’” Take this opportunity to learn from people who were in your shoes not too long ago! This is a great chance for students to make connections with HC alumni and solidify their reception networking skills.

Looking for networking tips?

  1. The HCEG student club will be meeting today, 9/29, for the second time this fall. In honor of this upcoming HCEG Networking Event, they’ll be discussing
    networking etiquette and important DOs and DON’Ts. Again the club meeting is tonight (Tues., Sept. 29) in Hogan 402 at 7pm.
  2. The Center for Career Development has put together a handout outlining networking tips. Access the blog here, and stop by their office (Hogan 203) during drop-in hours M-F 1-4 pm and Wednesday 10-12 pm for resume review and more.

The event, titled Graduate School: Accelerating Your Entrepreneurial Trajectory, will run from 6:30-9:00pm on Wednesday, October 7th at MIT of Cambridge, MA. *Students can register for free! Dress is business casual – no jeans. Full details of the event and descriptions of the panelists can be found here. We hope to see you there!

Feel free to stop by the COES Pre-Business Office in Stein 129E or email dchu@holycross.edu with any questions.

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Thanks to Catherine Cote ’18, our Career Communications Liason student worker, for her detailed description of this upcoming networking event in Boston. Like she said, hope to see you there! As always – check out the new COES instapage @HCPrebusiness – and watch for future student write-ups of Pre-Business events.

Cassie Gevry
Associate Director, Entrepreneurial Studies

 

Shark Tank Competition – Student Review

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Photo Credit: Chris Christo

For all of the aspiring entrepreneurs out there, last Thursday night’s Shark Tank Competition was one for the books. Twenty-one groups of male and female Crusaders shared their ideas for potential products and businesses, competing for cash prizes and the ultimate reward, being named this year’s Shark Tank winner!

Clever Ideas, the first section of the night, consisted of a two minute verbal pitch without the aid of a powerpoint nor a question and answer session preceding it. The prizes at stake were two amounts of $250, and the pitch had to address these three main questions: What’s the product or service, what’s the value proposition, and who’s the customer? Although six groups competed, only two emerged victorious, and those were the apps Gavel, Michael Carboni ’18, and Tap and Teach, Alex Yeo ’15. Gavel focuses on addressing the lack of political expertise among United State’s citizens by simplifying the presentation and explanation of bills currently on the floor. The app will provide a list of bills per week, a short summary of the bill written at a high-school reading level, definitions of key terms and phrases, and the outcomes of each vote so users can directly see if a bill was passed or not. On the other hand, Tap and Teach is an app that wants to “redefine the world of tutoring.” Essentially, it will provide affordable, accessible tutoring and streamline the process of working with a tutor at Holy Cross. Because the app will feature the tutor’s profiles, all of whom will be Holy Cross students, the connection between the tutor and the student will be that much easier.

Directly following this was presentations for a Serious Start-Up, the main event of the night. Each group completed a five-minute pitch and a subsequent two-minute question and answer session, focusing on questions such as: What’s the product or service and how does it work, why is it necessary, what is your plan to grow your company, and what are the projected cash inflows and outflows for the first three years? All the participants in this section especially felt the pressure as first prize was $7,500 and second prize was $4,000, both amounts designed to help winners make their budding businesses concrete realities. Fifteen teams presented their ideas, ranging from Dmix, a program that provides quality, individualized song edits and mixes for dance performances and fitness classes, to RightOver, a shared-economy, freemium marketplace that matches college chefs with hungry college stomachs. Although each team’s idea was fantastically creative, Studily, Sean Donoghue ’15 & ohn Tabone ’15, and SKRA (pronounced ser-ka), Andrw Valencia ’15 & Michael Casey ’15, were the two concepts that emerged victorious. Studily, a productivity suite that allows students to plan their coursework, track their progress, and collaborate with classmates, took top prize. In addition, this app would allow for real-time, anonymous assessment of the course, an especially useful feature for professors using it to gauge student’s experiences in and reactions to the class. SKRA, which took second prize, is a newsfeed platform that enables recipients of blast emails to manage their responses to these emails. Not only does it allow students to gain control over their email inbox, for once, but it also can be used as event management software for high school student and college student involvement offices to track current and upcoming events.

Of course the judging panel had their work cut out for them, I’m sure it wasn’t easy to pick the winners.   A big thank you to judging panel:

Bob Allard ’91, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, extensionEngine (eE)
Mary Moran ’77, Financial Services Consultant and Contractor
John Calcio, VP, Channel Development, QStream
Ben Kaplan ’16, Co-Founder & CEO, WiGO & 2013 Holy Cross Shark Tank Winner
Tom Flynn ’87, Managing Partner, SV Life Sciences
Davide Marini, Co-Founder & CEO, Firefly BioWorks

Overall, the night was truly a success, leaving its participants confident in their products and businesses and its audience inspired to work towards creating their own company as well. If you did not attend this year, all I can say is to make it a priority on your calendar next year; you will not regret it.

Thanks to Evan Grogan ’17 for this review of the annual Shark Tank Competition!  View photos from the event here.

As always – check out the new COES instapage @HCPrebusiness.

Cassie Gevry
Associate Director, Entrepreneurial Studies

 

Principled Leadership Workshop – New this May!

FIND YOUR MORAL COMPASS

WHAT IF? Your boss demands you to falsify accounting records to keep your job.
WHAT WOULD YOU DO? An official in another country expects a bribe to finalize a business contract.

 

Leadership BannerThe PRINCIPLED LEADERSHIP WORKSHOP is held over two days to guide students in developing leadership skills and explore the intellectual, emotional, and moral qualities of successful business leadership. This will also provide an excellent opportunity for students to learn from and network with alum.

Program Dates: May 14-15, 2015 (Thursday & Friday)
Two Day Workshop After May Finals

 

Instructors:
Bob Corti P99 P03, Former CFO & EVP, Avon Company
Kendy Hess, Asst. Professor, Philosophy, College of the Holy Cross
Tom Patton ’86, President & CEO, CAS Medical Systems

Info Session: Mon., March 30 at 5P in Hogan 304

Online Application Deadline: Thursday, April 9, 2015 @ 11:59P
Online application includes resume, cover letter and one letter of recommendation (employer preferred).

Have what it takes? APPLY!

Future Steps Workshop – I’m ready for the next step, are you?

“What are your plans for next year?” – The dreaded question that all college seniors are asked.

It would have been easier to ignore the frightening reality that I am graduating in four months, but with determination I ventured back to campus a few days early to attend the Future Steps workshop over winter break, January 15 & 16, 2015. This COES & Pre-Business workshop, taught by Mimi Doherty ’02 – Founder & President of Future Steps, is geared toward juniors and seniors looking for an internship or a full time job. We were all eager to learn the tools necessary to nail a job interview, write the perfect cover letter and present that 60 second pitch.

What did Mimi teach us?

  1.   How to answer behavioral interview questions
    1. What types of questions can you expect?
    2. Why are the interviewers asking these questions?
  2.  How to construct your resume
    1. Make sure it’s visually appealing
    2. Are your bullet points concise? Do they show what you’re capable of?
  3. How tell a coherent story
    1. Are you making sense? Are you using specific examples to back up your points?
    2. Are you using the three step rule to tell your story?
  4. How to tailor your resume and interview to company specific expectations
    1. Are you qualified? Do you meet their expectations?
    2. What stories do you tell?

Overall, I highly recommend this workshop to rising juniors and seniors. Mimi was incredibly generous in her willingness to help us develop our interview skills, resume and how to market ourselves in the workforce. Attending a liberal arts college has tremendous benefits for the real world.  However, most Holy Cross students lack the proper language to leverage our unique academic background. This workshop will help you choose key vocabulary to enhance your brand and land that first job. I can honestly say I am much more prepared for the job search process.

I’m ready for the next step, are you?


Thanks to Grace Chmiel ’15 for this honest reflection and review of the new COES Future Steps Workshop taught by Mimi Doherty ’02, Founder & President of Future Steps.  Good luck in the job hunt, Grace – we are confident in your success!

As always – check out the new COES instapage @HCPrebusiness and watch for the next blog post…

Cassie Gevry
Associate Director, Entrepreneurial Studies

Fullbridge Professional Edge @ HC – January Session

photo (10)Fullbridge Professional Edge @ HC wrapped up the second session on campus last week with the January program.  The first team project (photo) was the Marshmallow Project where students had 18 minutes to create the tallest standing tower, topped with a marshmallow!  Our student writer, Sarah Slipek ‘ 17, was on the winning team! Check out her review of the program:

This past week, forty students participated in the Fullbridge Professional Edge Program hosted by the College of the Holy Cross. The Fullbridge Professional Edge Program is an intensive, 6-day educational workshop that exposes students to a variety of business fundamentals. It utilizes an online platform, with coaches onsite to supplement the materials and offer students immediate feedback. Sessions included balance sheet analysis, business research, and team communication skills. The program culminated with students designing and delivering a presentation where they applied these new skills.

The Fullbridge Professional Edge Program is a requirement of the COES Professional Program, a pre-business program at Holy Cross designed to help students evaluate their career options. Participating in the Fullbridge Program was a great investment of my time, and it will hopefully set me apart from other applicants when I find myself applying for jobs in the future.

If you are interested in applying for the program it will be offered again this upcoming spring, May 14 – 20 (the week between finals and commencement). You can find more information by contacting the COES Pre-Business office at Holy Cross, or by visiting the Fullbridge website at fullbridge.com/holycross


Thanks to Sarah Slipek ’17 for this review of Fullbridge Professional Edge @ HC – well on her way to completing the COES Professional Program!

Check out the new COES instapage and follow us @HCPrebusiness
Watch for our next blog post…

Cassie Gevry
Associate Director, Entrepreneurial Studies

The Entrepreneur’s Journey

What 5 traits empower entrepreneurs to create their own luck?

Ray just got off a call from Chennai, India. The call was from a business partner, who now wants to expand Ray’s book of business internationally.  This good news came weeks prior to a different partners’ meeting, a meeting celebrating the past. The three original partners got back their most recent financials, and they blew their year-end goal out of the water.

ray_jorgensen_headshot_tnRay Jorgensen ‘91’s firm, PMG, Inc., is in the business of helping low income communities get access to affordable health care. This mission, inspired by “men and women for others”, has earned PMG the privilege of being a top Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) firm serving the Community Health Center (CHCs) market.  He has written several books and teaches healthcare practitioners about how to maximize their revenue for the healthcare services they provide. And amidst the uncertainty of health care reform, Ray and his two business partners have grown the PMG team from 3 to nearly 300 people to capitalize on an underserved, yet growing, niche market.

This journey supports the modern myth that entrepreneurs can control what goes on around them. It presents a story that Ray knew what he wanted to do after his 1991 graduation.  It conjures a narrative that he knew exactly how to capitalize on the health care overhaul. It creates a belief that he always intended to have a business partner in India.

In fact, the opposite is true.

After Holy Cross, Ray was rejected from every law school he applied to, a non-compete clause challenged his startup’s growth, and his professional musician dreams sank.
As a result of these challenges, Ray is constantly battling an illusion of control. He adapts to uncertainty in an ever-changing market. The first step to battle this illusion is his own awareness that he cannot change things out of his power. The second step is controllable; most importantly, attitude and effort. Ray cannot affect an evolving environment, so he focuses on how to react to change. And with enough perseverance and persistence, he believes he can create his own luck too.
So how has he battled the illusion of control? How has he created his own luck? And what clues can other entrepreneurs follow to improve their chances at success?

The items below outline 5 areas in which entrepreneurs can control and in doing so create their own luck.

1)    Expertise: Be a top authority in your industry
Ray credits PMG’s success in the healthcare industry to focusing on CHCs. Before this commitment, his business was scattered across many medical subspecialties from chiropractors to anesthesiologists. Although the business was diversified, there were many competitors in these subspecialties with more expertise than PMG. By focusing on being a top CHC authority, no competitor knows more than Ray’s team. In fact, as the nation’s leading provider of for CHC’s, PMG’s articles are often the only result to his team’s CHC Google searches. Although this is easy for Ray to realize looking back, how can others identify how to be an authority?

2)    Information Gaps: Fill the information gaps others have missed
In 2006, PMG made the difficult decision to release the two-thirds of their book of business that were not CHCs. Although this decision sounds crazy, Ray applied his Holy Cross history major to research their hypothesis. His team validated that the government hyper funds CHCs at a rate higher than traditional fee-for-service Medicaid. PMG discovered what the competition had not: CHCs are part of the government healthcare safety net with exceptional reimbursement despite typically undesirably elevated percentages of Medicaid patients. This insight allowed Ray’s team to identify an information gap, accessible knowledge that the rest of his competitors didn’t understand. Although their 2006 book of business included many medical subspecialties, this broad knowledge allowed PMG to identify the information imbalance, which ultimately led them to focus on only CHCs. This is easy to identify in hindsight, so how can others identify and bridge the information gap?

3)    Mentorship: Find a mentor to learn from the best
Before Ray started his own firm, he was learning about the entire healthcare billing business while working for a New England start up. The startup, which specialized in the RCM, allowed him to receive first-hand experience from industry experts. This was more than a job; this was a mentorship that allowed him to develop key industry knowledge, while still paying the bills for his growing family. The intellectual capital he gained over this time period served as the foundation to later start PMG with his partners. Identifying information gaps and becoming an authority may appear difficult, but finding a mentorship can significantly reduce this time and effort. While Ray was fortunate to have come across this opportunity, how can others find mentors to learn industry knowledge?

4)    Complex Industry: Enter an industry with growing opportunities
Shortly after graduation, Ray took a job at Blue Cross Blue Shield, before ultimately switching to the provider side to focus on compensation maximization. The healthcare industry, with its growing demand and legal complexities, provided him a fertile environment to develop intellectual capital. The ever-changing market created new problems for established organizations, but Ray saw this adversity as an opportunity. Although Ray and his partners never knew exactly how healthcare reform would affect his business, their ability to identify problems and perceive them as opportunities, has led their team to become a top billing specialist in the CHC space. How should others narrow their search for a growing industry?

5)    Passion: Choose a profession with meaning
Ray believes that everyone, rich and poor, should have access to healthcare. The healthcare industry and the CHC subspecialty, empowers him to create change in the lives of people who need it most. Yes, billing may not sound glamorous, but PMG makes a real impact every day. Although his job hasn’t always been smooth sailing and he hasn’t always had control of the helm, finding a meaningful career has allowed him to weather the storm as he awaits calmer waters.

So how do you create your own luck and start on the path to successful business?

Ray believes the first step to battle the illusion of control is to be aware of it. The second step is to control what is controllable. So create your own luck: choose a career with meaning, identify growth areas, find a mentorship, fill the information gaps, and become a top authority at what you do. It has been a 20+ year journey for Ray, from the midnight shift at Blue Cross Blue Shield to being his own boss. During this journey, he has come to the conclusion, “Life works serendipitously, but the gradual persistent development of expertise is repeatable.”

At his team’s celebratory dinner last month, he made a toast. The toast was simple – “to the complexities of Healthcare.” Although PMG continues to blow their 2014 goals out of the water, it could be said that Ray actually prefers to be in the water. He gave up swimming against the ambiguity; in fact, Ray has grown fond of swimming with it.

Ray Jorgensen ‘91 has been President and CEO of Priority Management Group, Inc. (PMG) since 1998. Responsible for oversight of consulting operations strategic leadership, national speaking, and board work for PMG’s companies, Ray has personally trained thousands from all 50 states on coding, billing, and reimbursement in addition to authoring several books and dozens of articles.

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Thanks to our writer, Andrew Marzo ’14.  He is an aspiring entrepreneur who believes that founders do not find their business, they create opportunities. He suggests that the prevalent entrepreneur narrative is a myth, and believes a new narrative is necessary. Through articles, conversations, and interviews, Andrew hopes to deconstruct this illusion and leave behind breadcrumbs for future entrepreneurs to discover on their own journey.

Check out the new COES instapage and follow us @HCPrebusiness
Watch for our next blog post…

Cassie Gevry
Associate Director, Entrepreneurial Studies

 

A COES POEM: From #dchu to you!

Santa Insta
“GOOD LUCK WITH FINALS”
Take a break for safety sake.
You need to sleep to stay awake!
Good luck wishes from professor #dchu
Hopefully the curve will have a skew.
We’ve got your back here in #prebiz
Don’t worry, it is what it is.
Follow us on insta @HCPrebusiness
We three wish you a Merry Christmas!
Happy Holidays!
– Prof. Chu, Cassie Gevry & Kathy Lavallee