Corvallis got a light dusting of snow today and we spent the morning playing in the snow taking photos of Bexell Hall covered in white. Happy winter break everyone.
Leadership Workshop Series gets students into minds of executives
Every day executives are faced with difficult choices, situations that can define the path of a business or a career.
This term a select group of College of Business students got the chance to think through real-life scenarios with the executives who faced those tough decisions as part of an experimental leadership seminar.
“What I’m showing them is that their first response may not be correct,” said Executive in Residence in Innovation and Entrepreneurship Bob Mayes. “It’s like an onion, you have to peel the layers back.”
Led by Mayes, the class allowed students to interact closely with business leaders and examine their decision-making process.
The weekly class brought executives from diverse industries and backgrounds to discuss actual cases from their own careers and challenged students to think what they would have done in the same situation.
Before each class students received a situation provided by that week’s speaker. They were given details on the information available before the decision was made, but not what the speaker did or what happened after.
Students responded with what they would have done under the circumstances, and then analyzed the situation with the executive in class before finally discussing the actual outcome.
“All I’m trying to do is bring experience into the classroom in a setting that is safe,” Mayes said. “They’re graded on preparation and participation.”
Speakers included Howard Behar, former president of Starbucks, Phillip Swan, CEO of EZ Grill/P&M Products, Inc. and former Microsoft VP of Sales, and Claudia Sieb, who spoke at the final session Friday Nov. 30.
Sieb is the owner and co-founder of Sieb International, a global marketing and consulting firm that specializes in developing revenue strategies for companies targeting affluent U.S. markets and consumer segments.
During her talk Sieb showed the actual pitch she gave a luxury resort, providing a real-life example of key business concepts and discussed the choices with students in the class. As a business owner herself, she also laid out some of her key lessons as an entrepreneur.
The class will continue in winter term with a new slate of five executives, starting Jan. 18.
Portfolio review showcases top sophomore graphic design work
While all Oregon State College of Business students face pressure during finals week — studying for exams, finishing up projects and actually taking those dreaded finals — graphic design sophomores have a different type of challenge.
To gain acceptance to the School of Design and Human Environment professional school as graphic design majors, students must pass through a selective and competitive process, capped off by a portfolio review at the end of fall term their sophomore year. That work is displayed and presented — this year at the LaSells Stewart Center on Dec. 5 — for review by faculty students and loved ones.
Over the course of the term students were given specific tasks — illustrate a moment from his or her life, create packaging for a product, a book cover, and other assignments — that were brought together and displayed.
Ayman Alabduljabbar said he enjoyed having his work shown and the feedback he got watching people move through the halls.
“It’s a great feeling to be honest,” Alabduljabbar said. “It’s reaffirming for any student who put tiome and effort into pieces to see people respond.”
Weatherford Garage student starting Kickstarter push for Goldfish Garden
Ryan Coghlan knew he had something when he started to get oohs and aahs from family and friends when he showed them the Goldfish Garden.
The invention — a combined fish tank/plant container which uses the science of aquaponics to fertilize the plant with waste from the bowl — has become Coghlan’s fulltime endeavor. Coghlan was recently accepted to become part of the Austin Entrepreneurship Program‘s Weatherford Garage, and is trying to make the invention into a thriving small business, starting a Kickstarter campaign to fund the initial phase of the operation.
“I have been interested in entrepreneurship for a while and was looking for the right idea to convert into a successful business, and I think what I have has real potential to become something big,” Coghlan said.
Coghlan completed an M.S. in Applied Biotechnology from Oregon State University in 2011, and wrote his thesis on aquaponic technology and its relation to small sustainable business. He interned on an aquaponics company in Wisconsin, giving him the experience he needed to develop his own product.
The first decision was how to scale an aquaponics venture. Coghlan saw three main possibilite; a large commercial operation, a medium backyard system or something small enough for individual consumers.
“I figured that aquaponic technology had a great opportunity in the Northwest,” he said. “After talking to quite a few people about this range of sizes I found that most people were more interested in a small home product and there was mush less start-up costs involved with developing a system like this.”
The Goldfish Garden combines a standard fishbowl with a small planting space attached above. A pump attached to the bowl pulls water up into the plant, which absorbs the nutrients and delivers filtered water back into the bowl. In tests, Coghlan has come bowl that can go up to four months without cleaning.
Bowls are small enough to fit in kitchens or desks, and have successfully grown herbs such as Oregano and basil and small house plants. One package even includes a grow light for areas without natural light.
Coghlan has worked on the Goldfish Garden for more than a year, purchasing the materials for the initial prototype in July of 2011. Over that tim ehe consulted with a number of small-business advisors, including College of Business Entrepreneur in Residence Michael Curry.
Curry provided assistance on the business and helped get Coghlan connected with the Weatherford Garage, a select community of students who get a yearlong immersion in entrepreneurship, from developing an idea to starting a business and creating products.
For now Coghlan is trying to promote the Kickstarter campaign and get investors for the Goldfish Garden.
“The biggest thing I have taken from this process is that no matter how ready you think you are, there are always going to be things that you missed and things you don’t know how to do when launching a business,” he said. “I have also realized that trying to start a business is not a full time job but more of a full life job, especially trying to do it by yourself. It has been hard to break away from the constant thoughts that I could be doing something to advance my business and make it successful.”
Dean Ilene Kleinsorge announces new Oregon State MBA options at Oregon’s Most Admired event
Once a year the leaders of Oregon’s Most Admired Companies convene to recognize the organizations and executives that are the cornerstone of the Oregon and Southwest Washington business community. In front of a capacity crowd of 900, the 2012 honorees were presented with an award and the rare opportunity to applaud the work and impact that they and their competitors have on the economy.
Hosted by the Portland Business Journal, with a core group of sponsors including Oregon State University, the event was held at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Portland and acknowledged industries including Technology, Traditional Manufacturing, Commercial Real Estate, Health Care, Financial Services, Professional Services, Nonprofits and Agriculture and Forest Products.
For Oregon State, the sponsorship connects us not only with industry leaders but an event that honors so many of our alumni and the companies they’ve founded, work for or are invested in.
Attending the event as guests of OSU were alumni, faculty, staff and MBA students, with College of Business Dean Ilene Kleinsorge hosting the tables. As she took the stage to announce the companies leading the Health Care sector, Kleinsorge addressed the crowd and announced changes to the MBA program, including four new tracks and an online/hybrid option. New options being offered are:
- Executive Leadership
- Financial Planning and Wealth Management
- International Operations and Supply Chain Management
- Marketing Management / Market Research
In partnership with the College of Pharmacy, the College of Business is offering a Pharm.D/MBA degree with an emphasis in Executive Leadership. With the curriculum general enough to serve leaders and professionals from any industry, this Executive Leadership track will provide the business community the ability to earn an Oregon State MBA.
With the addition of these tracks and the online/hybrid delivery, Oregon State alumni and students will continue to have an impact on the economy and continue to represent and lead Oregon’s Most Admired Companies.
Graphic Design students get a space of their own
Thursday evening the Oregon State University Graphic Design program showed off its new offices and collaboration space with an open house, inviting the OSU community to see the new area it hopes will facilitate more great work from students.
Located in the ground floor of Milam Hall, the new area houses offices for graphic design faculty, a front lounge area and an open meeting room for students.
The meeting area doesn’t have tables and chairs but moveable, stackable blocks that can be rearranged in any format a project requires. Eventually the space will also have whiteboards and flatpanel screens.
“They can bring their laptops, plug into the screens,” said associate professor Andrea Marks. “It’s a place they can kind of call their own, where they don’t have to have teachers around.”
Michael McDonald, a junior in graphic design, was already breaking the space in Thursday evening, handing out blocks to students as they entered.
“It’s a place we can all gather and use as a think tank and for projects with all these resources,” McDonald said.
SDHE Associate Dean Leslie Burns speaks at Business Roundtable
Leslie Burns, associate dean of the School of Design and Human Environment, was the speaker at the latest Oregon State Business Roundtable series event Wednesday at the Multnomah Athletic Club in Portland.
Burns discussed how design and business can better align, drawing on her experience not only as an educator but as a consultant to design and apparel companies.
A leading teacher and researcher in the field of apparel design, Burns has been a cornerstone of SDHE’s growth and was essential to it becoming the School of Design and Human Environment and its integration into the College of Business.
In addition to her academic work, she’s worked as a consultant in the apparel industry and is also working with scholars from Korea and Taiwan, exploring cross-national consumer behavior.
The Business Roundtable Series is part of a collaboration between the College of Business and OSU Alumni Association, with the goal of providing networking and service opportunities for alumni within the Portland-area business community.
The next Roundtable event is OSU President Ed Ray’s update on the university Jan. 31 at The Hilton Portland & Executive Tower.
Talking social media with the Oregon State Marketing Club
The Marketing Club trudged through the rain to meet tonight. Future Oregon State star alums right there! twitter.com/oregonstateuni…
— Oregon State(@oregonstateuniv) November 21, 2012
“So if you get a tweet at 2 a.m., would you respond?”
Colin Huber, social media writer for Oregon State University, took a moment thinking about the question, posed by a member of the OSU Marketing Club.
“Well, yeah,” Huber said, eliciting a few stunned looks from the crowd.
Colin, Kegan Sims, user experience specialist at OSU, and myself, Chris Hagan, communication and storyteller at the College of Business, met with the club at their weekly meeting Nov. 20 to talk about social media, how we approach it in our day-to-day and how we got the position we currently have.
This is going to be a bit different from most of what I post on this blog. Mainly I write about other people but since I took part in this particular story (and it felt a little rude to try and takes notes as a speaker), you’re going to get some first-person summarizing.
The three of us answered questions for almost an hour, and while I’m not sure how much the club got from our rambling, I wanted to throw out a few things that came up a lot.
-We got a few questions about how we keep up with the ever-changing landscape of social media. I always tell people that to really stay on top of trends it can’t be something you do 9-5 and then turn off. It has to be a part of your routine, which is what led to the question to Colin about answering messages at odd times.
Colin runs the twitter and Facebook accounts for OSU, meaning he gets tons of questions about the university, often from high school students interested in coming to OSU. He said while he may not always be checking the accounts (say, if he’s actually asleep) if he comes across a question he’ll take the time to respond in the moment. Little things like that can go a long way to project the kind of caring, responsive identity OSU wants to be known for.
Of course, Kegan jumped in to point out that keeping up doesn’t mean being on every social network, but knowing enough to decide whether or not it fits into your organization’s or even your personal brand development goals. You may not need a Pinterest page, but you need to know enough to say why not.
-We all talked about being careful what you post, on your account but especially any brand accounts you run. Kegan said it’s a lot of pressure, but also a lot of fun having that much riding on each post.
He and Colin mentioned how it can be tempting to respond to people bashing OSU on social media (Colin said football season and Civil War week are hardest), but most of the time its best to just let it go. You’re not going to convince someone like that to love OSU, and you may harm the univeristy’s image by feeding the trolls.
My advice is always imagine everything you post will be seen by your parents and your boss. The Internet has a great memory, and there’s always a way to find that post you thought was private or deleted. Once you put something online, you can never take it back.
-Being flexible was a big key, not only in the daily schedule but what you learn and the opportunities you decide to follow.
Each of us got degrees in different fields, and Kegan was the only one to study marketing as a major. Colin and I both worked at newspapers before moving to marketing, and none of us went through school thinking social media would be our main focus.
Internships were key, introducing us to the right people at the right time (my final internship led directly to my first job, and Kegan interned at OSU). Kegan mentioned we were all lucky to get where we are, which is true, but also true in any job search. A lot is random, but being open to trying new things and meeting new people is key.
Kegan also mentioned how important it is to pick up new skills. Want to work with social media? Well, it’s probably good to know how to shoot photos and videos, at least a little bit (I can say from experience it’s the same thing if you want to work in newspaper or television news).
Overall it was a fun experience. We got great questions and we could tell OSU has a great group of future marketers in this class.
Recent College of Business research investigates slots players, elderly consumers
College of Business researchers put out two new studies this month looking at how consumers act in two very different spheres.
Assistant Professor of Marketing Michelle Barnhart studied how the ways older individuals consumed, whether buying groceries or attending medical appointments, changed the way they were perceived by others, even when the individual didn’t view her or himself as “old.”
Through in-depth interviews Barnhart found the children and caregivers often reinforced negative stereotypes of aging in the way they interacted with their parents.
“When people in their 80s or 90s exhibited characteristics that society tends to associate with people who are not old, such as being aware, active, safe, or independent, they were viewed and treated as not old,” Barnhart said. “In this way, they were able to age without getting old.”
The study received local and national media attention, from the hometown Corvallis Gazette-Times to entities such as Yahoo! News. It’s now available online and will be published in the April 2013 issue of the Journal of Consumer Research.
Sandy Chen, assistant professor of Hospitality Management at OSU Cascades, conducted a study of a different type of consumer, those who frequent slot machines.
Chen, through interviews with slot machine players, found players fit into a few distinct categories, but not the ones most tied to the activity.
The most common player? A female homeowner, between the ages of 55 and 60, with at least some college education and an annual household income of more than $55,000.
Chen’s findings challenge many of the stereotypes associated with slot machine players, something she thinks casinos should take into account when designing their games.
“There are very different motivations for playing slot machines,” Chen said, “so casinos may be making a mistake when they take a one-size-fits-all approach to marketing, or creating an atmosphere within their facility. They may be better off with a segmentation approach.”
You can see what others had to say about the study in the Democrat-Herald and casino-trade websites Casino City Times and the Online Casino Archives.
Results of the research have been published online in the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, and will be published in a print edition of the journal in 2013.
You can always find the latest media mentions for College of Business faculty, staff and students on our In the News Page, including links to coverage back to 2004.
A Night for Family Business
In his opening remarks at the Austin Family Business Program Excellence in Family Business Awards, Oregon State University President Ed Ray noted how the family enterprises being honored all made a point to maintain strong traditions.
“Tonight’s horonorees reflect a vibrant sense of the importance of strong family roots,” Ray said.
From Atiyeh Oriental Rugs, which started in 1900 and only five years later advertised itself as “Portland’s Permanent Rug Store,” to the Anderson Family Farm of Ellensburg, Wash., which started in 2011, each family found success in applying a set a values which reflects the spirit of each family.
The ceremony, held Thursday Nov. 15 at the Governor Hotel in Portland, coincided with Governor John Kitzhaber’s proclamation of Nov. 15 as Family Business Day in the state of Oregon.
Honorees came from a variety of backgrounds and industries, including real estate, agriculture, waste disposal, wineries and even kite manufacturing.
Congratulations to all the winners and finalists:
Dean’s Award for Family Business Leadership
Atiyeh Oriental Rugs of Portland
Micro Family Business (nine or fewer employees)
Coelho Winery of Amity
Andersen Family Farms of Ellensburg, Wash.
Small Family Business (10-24 employees)
Winner: Fruithill, Inc. of Yamhill
Finalists: Twelve-Mile Disposal Service of Portland, Gomberg Kite Productions International of Lincoln City
Medium Family Business (25-99 employees)
Winner: Melvin Mark Companies of Portland.
Finalists: Alan Brown Tire Center of Newport, Musgrove Family Mortuaries of Eugene.
Large Family Business (100+ employees)
Winner: Generations, LLC. of Portland
Finalists:Ulven Companies of Hubbard, Capitol Auto Group of Salem
Faculty Award
Bobby Garrett, assistant professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at Oregon State University.
Student Award Winner
Christopher Thompson, a recent College of Business graduate who joined his family firm, TEC Equipment, Inc.