The Dean’s Corner

Right now Leeds School students are moving in, picking up textbooks and preparing for the fall semester. We are excited to welcome them for the 2010-11 academic year.  

Portfolio, the alumni magazine of the Leeds School of Business that publishes every fall and spring semester, highlights our graduates who are leaders in their industries. Recently in each issue, we focus on a central theme to create a common thread throughout the magazine's rich stories and dynamic photography. Recent themes have included sustainability, entertainment, and food and beverage. You can read past issues by clicking here.

Our next magazine, the Fall 2010 issue which will arrive in mailboxes in late October, celebrates business school alumni working in technology: game changers and innovators who are using the latest cutting edge advancements in technology to better their industries, such as healthcare, museums, higher education, sports, video games, financial, nonprofits, and of course, computers.

This common thread in each issue of Portfolio also demonstrates how diverse and impactful a business degree from the Leeds School can be.

We welcome your feedback; this is, after all, your magazine! Tell us what you think or what you would like to see in upcoming issues by emailing bizalum@colorado.edu.  

To continue the Leeds School's distinguished history of student and alumni success, faculty excellence, and international recognition, we rely on the generous support of our alumni and friends. Scholarship donors are in integral part of the work we do here at the Leeds school. That kind of leadership and support makes a college education attainable for our diversely talented students.

In the following video, Interim-Dean Laguna explains the value of scholarships for our students and the success of the school.



One example of a scholarship donor is Tammy McMinn who created The Late Bloomers Business Scholarship for nontraditional students.

At the age of 36, Tammy McMinn enrolled at the Leeds School of Business after previously attending six institutions. She has had quite a storied life: traveled to 23 countries, volunteers with children, and in 1998 set a Guinness Book World Record for the Greatest Vertical Distance Snowboarded in One Day.

As a nontraditional student at Leeds, McMinn received the Tony Tisone Memorial Scholarship. At Leeds she was on the Dean's List six semesters and received a certificate of excellence in entrepreneurial studies. While in the Deming Center's Entrepreneurship program she wrote the business plan for SoBo Dwellings, her private real estate investment company in Denver. McMinn has founded the Late Bloomers Business Scholarship in gratitude for the scholarship she received and hopes that other nontraditional students will not only benefit, but give back.

Alumni and friends can contribute annually to Leeds--and no matter what the amount, these gifts make a critical difference in the School's ability to support our students and vital, otherwise unfunded programs.

Learn More: leeds.colorado.edu/giving

My development colleagues and I recently spent a July evening visiting with Leeds Seattle alumni. We met a wonderful group of alums and friends of the school. Top of mind for many of them was Leeds and CU joining the Pac-10 conference. In the video below I share some of our alumni excitement about this potentially game-changing event, and explain what the Pac-10 could mean for the Leeds school.

Thanks again to all who came out for our visit.

I recently took a trip to China with the Executive MBA program. The overarching goal was to expose our MBAs to real-life international business practices and deepen their understanding of Chinese culture. It is the culminating experience of the program taught by faculty from the graduate schools of business of the University of Colorado at Boulder, Denver and Colorado Springs.  The seven-day trip consisted of a series of visits to Chinese companies.  It included tours of industrial plants and headquarters of companies, discussions with foreign managers, briefings by government officials, and cultural activities.  From my own experiences and feedback I received from the students, I'm happy to report that the trip was a resounding success. 

Our group of 42 students arrived in Beijing on Sunday, May 9, 2010. We had a packed itinerary and our first visit Monday morning was to the Olympic Stadium known as the Bird's Nest.  The stadium managers shared operational details regarding the planning and execution of the games and their strategies for the future success of the stadium. This is a large challenge as now that the Olympics are over, the stadium has no associated professional team to regularly fill the seats. They are looking into various entertainment and business events to create much needed revenue.



 All the visits on Monday, Wednesday and Friday were organized by the faculty and the visits on Tuesday and Thursday were the responsibility of the students to include topics of special interest to them or to their businesses.  Many contrasting experiences between doing business in the United States and China became apparent during the presentations and the ensuing Q&A.  We learned about restrictions, in the name of pollution control, imposed to some manufacturing facilities during the Olympic Games. While this made for better TV viewing abroad, it interested our students to learn that the restrictions caused scheduling and staffing issues with the manufacturers.

 

During a visit to the NBA China offices, we saw how popular basketball is in China with some very recognizable faces (Carmelo's and the Birdman's) adorning the entrance of the offices.  In another meeting, a discussion with a juice producer illustrated the issue of doing business in a country with China's population that has not been exposed to products that are already a mainstay in the western world.  Responding to a question about market share and the threat of other companies entering a particular market (in this case a vegetable-based drink), the Chinese executive told the group that the issue is not necessarily about holding market share but about increasing the interest of the larger population in the product.  In other words, a reduced percentage of a larger pie is a much better business proposition than just his company being the sole vendor in a smaller market. He welcomed the competition.

Visiting a state-run beer brewery, as well as listening to an executive from Xinhua (China's top official news agency) field a question about objectivity and censorship, gave valuable insight into aspects of Chinese culture for our Executive MBAs.

 

Future EMBA trips will continue to consider Asia in general and China in particular as a place of interest to our students. Also, given the growth and changes in international business markets, some economies in the south hemisphere -- mainly Chile, Argentina and Brazil -- may be attractive destinations in the future. These types of educational experiences are what bring top students to the CU campuses and the Leeds School of Business, and truly make our programs exceptional

I had the pleasure of meeting Kelly Brough, photo left, head of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce for lunch at Maggiano's in downtown Denver recently.  This was the first meeting for both of us and I was as eager as she to understand more about our two respective organizations. As it turns out, we share many things in common, the most obvious being a passion for education.

Unfortunately when it comes to education in Colorado, the statistics are grim: 47 percent of Colorado high school students never make it to college according to Colorado Department of Education. The Department also reports that at the same time, 36 percent of Colorado students never finish high school. And it gets worse as we are 48th (we very back and forth between 48th and 50th) in the nation for funding of higher education. Ironically, we have one of the most educated populations of any state, but this is because we have so many who come here from somewhere else. So, it's not our kids with those degrees, it's highly educated people who want to live here. And who can blame them?

For Kelly, it's not just a social or funding issue (though these are considerations), but a business issue. How does the state attract solid businesses if can't provide an educated workforce for the future?   Also, Colorado is no longer just competing on a national, but now we compete for enterprise on a global scale with countries like China and India?

During our conversation, it was clear that Kelly is game to take on the issue. She is reaching out to key Colorado business people to educate them about the challenges, but also the opportunities. She is using her position as a bully pulpit to convince anyone who will listen that the threat of Colorado becoming irrelevant due to its eroding educational system is real and that the time to address it is now.

Kelly also currently serves a committee on education appointed by Governor Ritter's tasked with identifying realistic solutions for problems in the state's educational system. There are no easy answers with regard to these issues and everything from school and institutional reform to innovative financing options are under consideration.

Will solutions be forthcoming? I don't know. But with passionate advocates like Kelly devoting their time, energy and talent to the cause, I am very hopeful and grateful for their commitment.   

Research ideas are sparked in unlikely places, which is why our faculty always have their antennae sharply tuned.

For instance, Frank Selto, an accounting professor at the Leeds School of Business, was traveling in Costa Rica when he met a number of American and European managers who were there to put out fires caused by global outsourcing relationships. This spurred his recent research on the factors that make or break global outsourcing partnerships. Global outsourcing is when an international business contracts another company to provide a service, like human resources or accounting. While it's increasingly popular, its success depends on many factors.



Frank found that corporate culture actually trumps national culture as a predictor for success in these relationships.  While language and tradition are certainly important, it's more important that two companies have compatible goals, visions, and plans for innovation. Thanks to an enterprising attitude during vacation, Frank pinpointed a problem that affected many growing firms. His results? Lessons for navigating a globally integrated economy.
 
Meg Campbell, a marketing professor at the Leeds School, also shows how digging deeper into common observations can yield fascinating research. She recently published an article in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin that explores how our society stereotypes materialism. Not only do we judge people who act materialistic, we also dislike them.



This kind of thinking keeps our faculty producing timely, value-added research that impacts the future of business.

Leeds School of Business was ranked 19th for sustainability in BusinessWeek's 2010 Undergraduate Specialty Rankings. And while infusing a greener way of thinking into higher education is growing in popularity across college campuses, the Leeds School has been committed for more than 20 years to the importance of teaching sustainable business practices through our coursework, centers, faculty research, conferences and community involvement.

As an active citizen of what the Sierra Club recognizes as the greenest university campus in the United States, we train future business leaders to emphasize sustainability in all its forms -- economic, environmental, and social.

Our LEED-certified Koelbel Building is located at the heart of the New Energy Economy in Colorado, an exciting renaissance which will impact the business world far beyond the Rocky Mountains. The Leeds School provides a home base to our students as they pursue sustainable business opportunities, social enterprises and startup companies here in the innovative Boulder area and around the globe.

For example, our MBA candidates have interned at the National Research Energy Laboratory, the only federal laboratory dedicated to renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. Our students consistently place in national and international competitions in the cleantech sector and real estate. Through student organizations like the Outdoor Industry Club and CU Energy Club, Leeds School students are connecting with like-minded peers interested in eco-friendly business ventures.

As for alumni, we easily devoted recent issues of the alumni magazine Portfolio here and here to the contributions that our alumni and students have made in renewable energy technology, green construction, organic and natural foods, among other sustainability-related industries. For instance, distinguished alumnus and advisory board member Joe Pettus has led initiatives in green energy, carbon footprint reduction, and LEED-certified retail locations for the grocery chain Safeway.

Sustainability is a thread running through our Centers of Excellence. Faculty member Stephen Lawrence, academic director of the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship's program "Entrepreneurs Pioneering a Sustainable World," is a leading voice on how sustainability is now in the best interests of business success through a triple bottom line-- people, planet, profits-- and that these factors are far from mutually exclusive.

Our Center for Education on Social Responsibility (CESR) develops and delivers sustainability content across the Leeds School curriculum through its focus on social responsibility to consumers, shareholders and local communities.

Our Real Estate Center offers courses on sustainable real estate development and land use, which was galvanized by the recent hiring of Stephanie Gripne, a scholar with an extensive background research and industry experience in conservation real estate, as the new director of the Initiative for Sustainable Development.

Sustainability is at the center of our integrated curriculum, faculty research, student engagement, and alumni ventures. This culture of sustainability, with the Leeds School as a significant contributor, is shaping the next generation of business leaders with the understanding and values needed to achieve a cleaner planet and a more equitable economy.

Lots of important research that takes place in academia never reaches the public. At the Leeds School, our faculty are attacking critical problems facing business leaders, policymakers and everyday people. And our mission is to disseminate this research to the world, answering today's biggest problems with rigorously tested solutions.  

Recently, we've published video interviews with researchers investigating topical issues like pollution control, overpriced gasoline and maximizing your retirement fund. For example, accounting professor Naomi Soderstrom recently studied how to measure the value of permits used in pollution trading, one federal policy posed to curb carbon emissions. In this interview below she discusses the market value of permits and how managers can reduce carbon cost-effectively.



Energy prices are another defining issue of our time.  Finance Professor Chris Leach asks why retailers are overcharging consumers for mid-octane gasoline after uncovering an arbitrage profit margin that shouldn't exist in a competitive market.  His insights can help drivers save money and protect the market from potential collusion.



Leach also puts himself in investors' shoes to determine whether or not converting your individual retirement accounts (IRAs) to ROTH IRAs is a good idea, depending on your tax liability, income volatility and many other factors. These are only a few examples of research from the Leeds School that targets relevant problems and touches the lives of our community.  

At the Leeds School of Business, we seek to attract and develop a well-rounded student body, which has recently been recognized for excellence across many platforms.  Earlier this year Michele Samorani, a third-year PhD student in operations, won the INFORMS Data Mining Student Paper Award in San Diego for creating methodology that advances the area molecule classification based on attributes. The procedure challenges the traditional approach to classifying molecules and promises to play a role in accelerating the R & D stage of pharmaceuticals.

From a much different project, Alex Lane recently scored a fashion scholarship from the Youth Mentoring Association. Alex, who is studying marketing and finance at the Leeds School, developed a way to target Tommy Hilfiger consumers using strategic online marketing, expanding the brand with a "My Tommy" concept, and adding web scanner technology so shoppers can picture themselves in the clothes. Alex is the eighth Leeds student to win the prestigious $5,000 award.

Undergraduate Mentorship Program



To help each student find a niche, we recently launched an undergraduate mentorship program that includes more than 80 students and 56 mentors across all fields and geographies. Mentors and mentees connect at least once per semester, and the relationships can lead to internships and future jobs. We are in the process of exploring options to expand this program to include a larger percentage of our juniors.  The students' commitment to the program (currently run by our Center for Education on Social Responsibility) is two years.

Connecting the breadth and talent of the Leeds School students with our alumni and network is just one way we set up the school for success.