College of Business | 2019
RESEARCH ISSUE The innovation engine of a business school
2019
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DEAN, COLLEGE OF BUSINESS Brenda Flannery EXECUTIVE EDITOR Director of Marketing and Communications, College of Business Jen Cucurullo
Welcome from the Dean
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Senior Director of Integrated Marketing, Minnesota State University, Mankato Sara Frederick EDITOR, In Review Sarah Asp Olson GRAPHIC DESIGNER Terri Poburka
Dear Friends, Welcome to the annual College of Business In Review magazine where we proudly highlight some of the year’s biggest impact, real-world initiatives. This issue celebrates those who are in direct, daily service to students and communities—our faculty and staff. What a committed, talented and diverse team we have for you to meet! University professors have a profound effect on students as teachers, advisors and mentors (check out what some of our students love most about the College of Business faculty on page 36). But you might not know our faculty spend countless hours (often weekends and summers too) as researchers, writers, consultants and knowledge creators.
What does it mean to be a researcher in the College of Business? At its core, research is a rigorous approach to answering questions; a disciplined process of inquiry. But research goes beyond simply asking the big questions. It’s a commitment to the discovery process steeped in rigor, data and the work of those who came before. Our cover feature (page 13) highlights how a culture of inquiry and commitment to the best pedagogy and real-world learning led to one of the College’s most impactful programs, the United Prairie Bank Integrated Business Experience. We also invite you to sit in on a conversation among Management faculty as they discuss questions at the intersection of business and health care (page 20), and read about a trio of professors who’ve focused their research globally (page 39). We’re proud to introduce you to our extraordinary staff—admiringly called the Ops Team (page 45). Individually and as a team, they play a vital role in student success—academically, technologically, professionally and personally.
WRITER Sarah Asp Olson
Our staff and faculty are dedicated partners in our mission to be the top business school for real-world opportunities. This allows students to thrive as entrepreneurs, like those who took the stage at our fifth annual Big Ideas Challenge (page 42), and business innovators, like alum Frank Jackman who is taking the meal kit industry by storm (page 10).
The mission of In Review is to inform and to connect the reader to the College of Business community. In Review welcomes story ideas supporting this mission.
We are proud of what our faculty and staff at the College of Business are doing. We’re excited about the questions they’re asking and the answers they’ve uncovered. We also know there’s more to do. Higher education today needs to be much more innovative and inclusive to meet the needs of students, companies, communities and society. We at the College of Business strive to include greater diversity of thinking and broaden our perspectives in our research, teaching and partnerships.
PHOTOGRAPHERS Jen Cucurullo Social Butterfly Steve Woit INTERNS Courtney Lee Kayla Rogeberg Maddi Oines PRINTER Corporate Graphics PROOFREADER Helen Healy ......................................................................
In Review is copyrighted in its entirety. This volume and all articles, images and photographs within may not be reproduced in any form without written permission from the editor. ...................................................................... COLLEGE OF BUSINESS 120 Morris Hall, Mankato, MN 56001 507.389.5420 | cob.mnsu.edu
We know some of the best questions and solutions have yet to be discovered, and we invite you to partner with us on this journey of inquiry and innovation!
Brenda Flannery, Ph.D. Dean, College of Business Professor of Management
This document is available in alternative format to individuals with disabilities by contacting the magazine staff at the address, e-mail, and/or fax number listed above or at 800-627-3529 or 711 (MRS/TTY).
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Made in Mankato
College of Business alum and food entrepreneur Frank Jackman has deep roots in Southern Minnesota.
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College of Business Leadership Team.................................................................. 6 Advisory Council .................................................................. 7 News & Notes ......................................................................... 8
COVER FEATURE:
From Big Idea to Real-World Experience Faculty inquiry unlocks innovative programs like the United Prairie Bank Integrated Business Experience.
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The Business of Health
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A conversation with Management faculty explores the intersection of business and health.
Online & Social Media Superstars Faculty take on questions of defamation, pricing and motivation online.
Bringing Research to the Street........................... 19 MavBiz Goes Online ......................................................... 30 Accounting Investigators............................................. 34 Students Sound Off .......................................................... 36
Agribusiness Opportunities...................................... 38 Five Years of Big Ideas.................................................... 42 Staff Impact for Student Success ...................... 45 Industry Experts, Classroom Connoisseurs............................................. 48 Maverick Icons Inspire.................................................... 50
Industry and the Academy
Mavericks Without Borders...................................... 52
Different styles make the Department of Finance faculty stronger.
Faculty Leader: Dr. Marilyn Fox.............................. 55
39
Research Around the World
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Be a Business Analytics Translator.................... 56 The Big Picture....................................................................... 58
13 FROM BIG IDEA TO REAL-WORLD EXPERIENCE
Our Greatest Resource................................................... 37
31
Faculty members focus on international research topics.
10
39
The Integrated Business Experience is one of the most innovative and popular programs within the College of Business— and it didn’t happen by accident. B Y S A R A H A SP OL S ON
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VISION To be the clear business school choice for real-world learning ———— VALUES Student centered, innovative and professional always pursued in a spirit of inclusion, collaboration and collegiality
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS
Leadership Team
Advisory Council
The College of Business Leadership Team includes 14 high-impact professionals who are making real-world learning experiences happen each day.
The Minnesota State University, Mankato College of Business Advisory Council exists to provide advice in developing the College’s strategic plan, monitoring the implementation of plans, and assisting the College in connecting with the business community to achieve its goals.
Pictured left to right.
Joseph Reising Finance Department Chair and Professor of Finance Byron Pike Master of Accounting (MAcc) Director and Associate Professor of Accounting Jen Cucurullo Director of Marketing and Communications Ann Kuzma Marketing & International Business Department Chair and Professor of Marketing Yvonne Cariveau Director of the Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship
and Assistant Professor of Management
Bryan Hoffman Director of Technology Brenda Flannery Dean of the College of Business and Professor of Management Kathleen Dale Management Department Chair, Assurance of Learning (AOL) Assessment
Coordinator and Professor of Management
Luke Howk Director of Corporate Partnerships and Professional Development Linda Meidl Student Relations Coordinator Ranae Hiniker Administrative Assistant to the Dean Marilyn Fox Master of Business Administration (MBA) Director, AACSB Director
and Professor of Management
Steven Johnson Accounting and Business Law Department Chair
and Associate Professor of Accounting
Dustin Sedars Director of Development
Jay Adams ’91
Owner, CrankyApe.com
Keith Bauer ’86
Director of Human Resources, Mankato Clinic
Mark Bietz ’07
Chief Marketing Officer, FUN.COM
Brad Brolsma ’73
President (retired), Merchants Bank Equipment Finance
Curtis Fisher ’72
Founder/Owner, Coldwell Banker Commercial Fisher Group (retired)
Jean Fitterer Lance ’83
Senior Vice President, Assistant General Counsel (retired), Boston Scientific Corporation
Trudie Gustafson ’81
Executive Vice President (retired), Greater Mankato Growth, Inc.
Norb Harrington ’75
Regional President (retired), Wells Fargo Bank
Doug Holtan ’87
Vice Chair, Facilities and Support Services, Mayo Clinic
Lisa Hyland ’88
Suresh Mathews ’75
Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer (retired), Unisys Corporation
Jeff Meyerhofer ’98
President, UnitedHealthcare Bundled Payment Solutions
Dennis Miller ’89
President and CEO (retired), Midwest Wireless
Senior Vice President, Director of Human Resources, Federated Insurance
Mike Mitchell ’71
John Kind ’79
Vice President of Marketing, The Occasions Group, Taylor Corporation
Executive Director, Mankato Family YMCA
Don Kreye ’88
National Account Director, Delaget
President, MSM Financial (retired)
Janet Westerlund
Brad Peters ’87
Group President, West Bank
Paul Rasmussen ’92
Founder, Zepol
Bron Scherer ’79
Founder and Partner, Protein Sources
Kyle Smith ’01
Principal, TAILWIND Group
Ryan Spaude ’98
Financial Advisory, Eide Bailly Financial Services, LLC
Glenn Stolt ’89
President and CEO, Christensen Farms
Jennifer A. Thompson ’80 CPA, CGMA Senior Manager, Swanson Hinsch & Co.
Pamela Ziermann ’85
Senior Vice President of Compliance (retired), Dougherty Financial Group, LLC
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Maggie Knier, Semifinalist in MN Cup Thanks to her win at the Big Ideas Challenge last April (see page 42), Marketing student Maggie Knier will spend the summer competing alongside 90 semifinalists in the state’s largest startup competition, MN Cup. Knier and her headband company, 2True Headbands, took the top prize at the Big Ideas Challenge, earning her a spot in the annual competition. She is one of 10 semifinalists in the student division putting her a step closer to a share of the $500,000 prize money, presented to MN Cup winners on Oct. 14. MN Cup is a public-private partnership housed in the Holmes Center for Entrepreneurship at the Carlson School of Management. Since its launch in 2005, approximately 16,000 Minnesotans have competed in MN Cup, and finalists have raised more than $400 million in capital.
Research Day Celebrates Faculty Innovation April 12 marked the annual College of Business Research Day. The day began with a welcome from College of Business Dean Brenda Flannery, who recognized the academic council and research committee and acknowledged the importance of celebrating research.
Left: Associate Vice President of Research Stephen Stoynoff.
Bold State Futures Returns Campus Minnesota University, Mankato’sto College of Business extends a huge thank you to everyone who a one-week campa for young helped Bold makeFutures the first is Bold Futures camp huge success for all of the participants! Our combined efforts women entering grades 10 through 12. Made introduced women to the possibilities possible50 byyoung a partnership between Taylor of STEM and business careers in a real-world, handsCorporation and Minnesota State Mankato’s on and fun way. We want to thank everyone who College to of aBusiness, the camp invites participants contributed very successful week!
“So many individuals know faculty at universities teach, but they don’t really understand that innovation comes from faculty research,” she said.
Flannery Featured Among Minnesota’s Top 500 Leaders For the second consecutive year College
Luke Howk, College of Business
Dr. Cindra Kamphoff, Center of Performance and Sport Psychology
Camp Director
Activity) Eric Koser, Mankato West High School Physics (Rocket Challenge and Folding Solar Panel Activities) Mandy Weister, Career Development Center at Minnesota State University, Mankato (Career Assessment Activity)
(Beyond Grit, at Controlling the Controllables) This year marks the second Bold Futures camp Minnesota State Mankato. Dr. Chad Wittkop, Chemistry and Minnesota Geology DepartmentState (Water Filtration Thanks to a sponsorship by The Glen A. Taylor Foundation, Curriculum Designer Activity) Kim Hermer, High School Teacher and AVID Coordinator, Mankato West Futures Mankato will welcome campers to Bold through 2020. For Dr. Emily Combs, Corteva Agriscience (Whichmore Corn Would you Bring to High School Market Activity) information on Bold Futures, contact Luke Howk at cobinternships@mnsu.edu. Dawn Rozga, Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union (Financial Literacy Karri Olmanson, Youth and Family Program Director, Mankato Family YMCA
Mankato Bold Futures Camp Advisory Board
Dean Brenda Flannery, College of Business Dr. Melissa Huppert, Minnesota Center for Engineering & Manufacturing Excellence Dr. Rebecca Bates, Integrated Engineering Dr. Sarah Kruse, Computer Information Science Karina Clennon, Career Development Center Dr. Yvonne Cariveau, Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Dr. Cindra Kamphoff, Center for Sport and Performance Psychology
Taylor Corporation MN Lynx and MN Timberwolves Microsoft MTU Onsite Energy Coloplast Fun.com Bent River Outfitters
2019-2020 Recipients: Chris Brown Mahoney and Paul Schumann; Kathy Richie; Wade Davis; Oksana Kim and Byron Pike
500 LEADER
to explore business opportunities in science, Sponsor Offered in Partnership Between of Business Dean Brenda Flannery was technology, engineering and math (STEM). selected for inclusion in Minnesota 500, an Campers stay on campus and attend STEM-focused workshops with Minnesota annual publication profiling the best and State Mankato faculty members. They also participate in team-building and brightest leaders in the state. Minnesota career-oriented activities. Some of this year’s highlights include an onsite visit to 500 includes leaders across more than 60 Microsoft, a viewing and discussion session on the film “Hidden Figures,” and a industries, including business, government STEM activity where campers were askedOn-campus to design a shoe. Activity Providers and Subject Matter Experts Educational and Community Partners Project Manager
Company and Off-Campus Experience Providers
Right: Chris Brown Mahoney and Byron Pike.
TOP
Minnesota State University, Mankato Partners Office of the President Office of the Provost College of Science, Engineering and Technology College of Business Student Center Staff Adventure Education Program Maverick Bullpen Centennial Student Union Printing Services Bureau 507 Integrated Marketing Catering Services Facilities Services University Dining Center IT Services Library Services
andFamily nonprofits. Flannery, who joined the Mankato YMCA College Business faculty 1996 and Independent Schoolof District 77 - Kim Mueller, Careerin & College Readiness Coordinator has served as Dean since 2011, is in good Southern Minnesota AVID Coordinators company. This(teachers year’s also includes top Mankato West High School andlist counselors) Mankato East from High School (teachers and counselors) CEOs Mayo Clinic, Land O’Lakes and Tri City United High School (teachers and counselors) theHigh Bush as well as former Vice Waseca School Foundation, (teachers and counselors) Owatonna High SchoolWalter (teachers and counselors) President Mondale. Zumbrota-Mazeppa Sr. High School (teachers and counselors) According to content Loyola Catholic High School (teachers anddirector counselors) Lianna Maple River High School (teachers and counselors) Matt McLernon, Flannery was chosen for Immanuel HightoSchool (teachers and counselors) “herLutheran ability make change not only on a Blue Earth Area High School (teachers and counselors) high strategy level with initiatives like the
honors program and international office, Camp Assistant Directors
Allison Brady but on the individual, ground level with her Dani Borglum
students. To be in education is to serve and to nurture people, andState she Camp Counselors/Minnesota exemplifies that.” Mankato Students Nzallah Whong Ekaterina Voytsekhovskaya Alycia Holwerda Kelly Rexroat Marisa Martinez Shrasta Koirala Shristi Silwal Lindsay Miller Oluwapelumi Solomon Annabel Sampson
A member of the Minnesota State system and an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity University. This document is available in alternative format to individuals with disabilities by calling the College of Business at 507-389-0544 (V), 800-627-3529 or 711 (MRS/TTY).
Associate Vice President of Research Stephen Stoynoff also addressed the group, noting the College of Business is the only college on campus with a research committee and a global education committee. “Under Dean Flannery’s leadership, the college has led the way and been a trend-setter in both those areas,” he said. “We as faculty and staff and our students have benefited from that research.” The event concluded with summaries by last year’s award recipients and the presentations of the 2019-2020 awards. Maggie Knier onstage at the Big Ideas Challenge.
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After hosting a successful launch party with a local hip hop artist at Red Rocks in downtown Mankato, Jackman and two college buddies launched EXP Promotions and put on more than 30 concerts and a nationwide tour.
While still a student, Jackman landed an internship via a
Maverick job board
Made in
MANKATO
F
with southern Minnesota’s own Schwan’s Company. After graduation he took a full-time position with Schwan’s where he met Local Crate co-founder, Mike Stalbaum, and started down the path toward becoming a food entrepreneur.
rank Jackman, founder of Minneapolis-based Local Crate, has deep roots in southern Minnesota. Raised in Tyler, Minnesota, Jackman chose to attend Minnesota State University, Mankato and headed straight for the College of Business. Nine years after graduating, Jackman returned to campus as part of the Richard and Mary Schmitz Food Entrepreneurship Series. From the stage in Ostrander Auditorium, Jackman reminisced about his time as a student and the lessons that helped him along the way. “Mankato had a big impact on my entrepreneurial spirit,” he says. “The classes definitely laid the building blocks, but it was the hands-on experience that gave me the confidence to go out and do things.”
Professor of Management Shane Bowyer was so impressed with Jackman that he hired him as a student to help launch the first Mankato Marathon. The experience was transformative for the young would-be entrepreneur. “It was really cool to see,” Jackman says. “One day it was an idea, the next day there were 3,000 people running the marathon.” Bowyer dug back into his emails from that first year of the event and found that Jackman wasn’t only watching from the sidelines. “Frank sold over $8,000 in ad sales for the marathon,” he recalls.
The mission of Local Crate is to source locally grown and produced products. Jackman keeps his
southern Minnesota ties
strong through partnerships with growers like Larry Schultz Organic Farm in Owatonna and Ferndale Market in Cannon Falls.
Among Jackman’s favorite local haunts as a college student: Boom Town ($5 pitcher night!), Johnny B’s and Mazatlán. During his junior year, as part of Brenda Flannery’s entrepreneurship class, Jackman and his group decided to design and sell t-shirts for homecoming. After vendor issues and bumpy roads with designing to Minnesota State Mankato standards, the project was a success. “That was a moment of confidence,” he says. “Like, ‘wow, we just did something, and people paid for it.’”
LISTEN | READ | LEARN Jackman is a huge advocate of learning from others in the business world. Here’s what he recommends tuning into: Book E Myth by Michael E. Gerber Magazine Fast Company
Jackman met his wife, a fellow Marketing major, at Minnesota State Mankato. She now works for a Minneapolis marketing agency.
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Podcasts Masters Of Scale with Reid Hoffman Mixergy by Andrew Warner By All Means by Twin Cities Business
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There’s a story behind the last meal you ate. It’s a story that starts with a farmer, a chef, a baker. It’s a story that Frank Jackman saw being diluted by a centralized manufacturing process where the average tomato travels 1,000 miles over two weeks before ever reaching your local grocery store. Jackman asked himself: “How do you bring food back to the people and to the story?”
Good Things Come to Those Who Crate
Moving the supply chain closer to the customer and the farmer was a start, but simple proximity wasn’t enough. Jackman and co-founder Mike Stalbaum launched Local Crate with a guiding principle they call local responsibility. It’s a concept built on elevating farmers and producers, celebrating innovative chefs using local ingredients, and supporting hunger relief efforts that benefit the community as a whole. Jackman took the stage at Ostrander Auditorium as part of the Richard and Mary Schmitz Food Entrepreneurship Series to talk about local responsibility and a business that has grown beyond what he could have imagined as a College of Business student nearly a decade ago. Standing beside Local Crate banners that read “You are WHERE You Eat,” Jackman
outlined his path to success, from his first entrepreneurship class with Dean Brenda Flannery to a Schwan’s Company internship to the idea to create a local meal kit company headquartered in the Midwest. Local Crate launched its first product, a direct to consumer meal kit, in November 2015. The kit included recipes inspired by local chefs and ingredients sourced within a 150-mile radius of the Twin Cities. Since the launch, Local Crate has expanded its reach, scaling its local concept to California with plans to expand its network. The company still sells kits direct to consumer, but more than 75 percent of its business is made up by retail sales in Target and Whole Foods, as well as regional grocers. “Local Crate is helping retailers and brands capture the $20 billion local food market,” Jackman says. “Local Crate is executing this by creating a network of regional food systems in every major region across America in order to procure and distribute the freshest food on the market. By moving the food supply closer to the consumer, we are reducing packaging, transportation and food waste so Local Crate can reinvest three-and-a-half times more of every consumer dollar into food ingredients and local farms.”
The College of Business and the Future of Food Frank Jackman is the youngest entrepreneur to take the stage for a mouth-watering presentation made possible through an endowment by Richard and Mary Schmitz. The Food Entrepreneurship Series is just one way in which Minnesota State Mankato’s College of Business is leveraging the region’s strong agricultural and food economy for student success. Here are a few more: • AgToday is a recognized student organization (RSO) designed to promote the growth and awareness of economic vitality shaped by the opportunities within agriculture. The organization strives to build and foster relationships with industry leaders, explore agricultural opportunities and educate students on the impact of agricultural economy.
FROM BIG IDEA TO REAL-WORLD EXPERIENCE The United Prairie Bank Integrated Business Experience is one of the most innovative and popular programs within the College of Business— and it didn’t happen by accident. B Y S A R A H A SP OL S ON
• For the second year, students had the opportunity to present ideas in a Food and Beverage category at the annual Big Ideas Challenge. Finalists included a healthy lifestyle app and a vertical axis wind turbine. • New ag-focused courses include Business in the Modern Ag Economy (MGMT 447), designed and taught by Shane Bowyer. • Deepened partnerships in the food and beverage industry through collaborations with GreenSeam, Hormel, Davis Family Farms, AMPI, Christensen Farms and more.
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Research Matters
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE AN INNOVATOR IN BUSINESS EDUCATION?
I
n a time where the answer to nearly every question is a click away and where content is a commodity, educators have become context creators. They are the experts; the guides on the side who lead students through high-impact learning experiences that stay with them long after graduation. And they are the researchers, digging into pedagogical best practices and industry standards always with an eye toward student success. For Brenda Flannery, Dean of the College of Business at Minnesota State University, Mankato, this gets at the heart of what it means to be an innovator. “Our pedagogical focus is on real-world learning,” she says. “[Our] research shapes how we teach, who we hire, [our] industry partnerships. … As a University and College of Business, we want to take it up to the next level—teach differently, design our pedagogy differently.” A prime example of a program at the forefront of educational innovation is the College of Business’ flagship realworld experience, The United Prairie Bank Integrated Business Experience (IBE). Each semester students in the IBE work together to conceptualize, execute, operate and end a business. At the culmination, all profits are donated to a charity of the students’ choosing. “It is what we consider our signature program,” says Flannery. “It’s designed around active learning, engagement, higher retention and student performance.” The IBE is also intentionally designed around pedagogical best practices dating back to the first half of the 20th century when John Dewey, philosopher and renowned early advocate for experiential education, led the charge for hands-on learning. “The IBE is based on the importance of experiential learning,” says Flannery, “but experiential learning that is relevant.” Dewey’s body of work paved the way for more contemporary concepts touting the importance of high-impact educational practices and real-world learning in higher education. And the faculty in the College of Business at Minnesota State Mankato are right there on the cutting edge, researching pedagogical strategies that work and putting them into practice—to the great benefit of students.
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Even before the IBE launched on Minnesota State Mankato’s campus, the College of Business was making a name for itself as a research hub and pedagogical leader for real-world, high-impact learning experiences. In 2010, Flannery and professor of Management Claudia Pragman published a paper on their efforts to redesign a Principles of Management course to include a service-learning component. After piloting the course redesign for a semester, they found students were highly engaged in class concepts—as evidenced by outstanding oral presentations and written reflections. They also discovered students felt a deeper connection to the university and community. “[The experience] allowed them to apply what they learned in class to a real-world project, required them to be problem solvers, allowed them to practice teamwork and practical workplace skills and build their professional self-confidence,” Flannery and Pragman wrote in summary. Pragman and Flannery, along with assistant professor of Management Shane Bowyer, dug deep into the ways in which service-learning impacts student success—from the effectiveness of service learning in teaching social responsibility to using student feedback to assess the value of in-class team projects. This type of research highlighted the benefits of a program like the IBE, where students live out in-class lessons in real time and with real stakes.
In those initial months, a group of College of Business faculty members met weekly to go over program design, administrative approval processes and how to structure courses in a way that would be most beneficial to students. “That was key in terms of the execution of it,” says Pragman, who served as an original instructor for the IBE. “As a faculty we sat down and looked at our courses individually and decided what topics the students would need from each of our courses in order to be successful with their business. It really required us to be in contact with each other.” The IBE addresses shortcomings inherent in lecture and even case courses within business schools: there isn’t real-time application of the material students are learning. “That’s what the IBE was designed to do, to have a real-world experience,” says Pragman. “They’re running their business but at the same time learning in their classes the theory behind what they’re practicing.” The IBE also allowed faculty leaders to teach in a different way. Instead of acting as traditional instructors, they become coaches or mentors; by design, IBE businesses are fully imagined, operated and ended by the students. It can be scary to send them out on their own, admits Joe Reising, a professor of Finance who has been with the IBE since the pilot program launched. But it’s a critical piece of what makes the IBE work.
“The research solidifies what we’re doing,” says associate professor of Management Kathy Dale. “We’re seeing employers focus on [the benefits of real-world learning] in interviews for internships and job offers. But research puts weight behind it. It backs up what we’re saying.”
The IBE Evolution The IBE very naturally grew out of the pedagogical research in which faculty within the College of Business were already engaged. “When we decided to really leverage that research, it sort of snowballed,” says Flannery. Developed in early 2011, the IBE was modeled after integrated courses at the University of Central Missouri and the University of Oklahoma. Faculty from the College of Business traveled to Missouri to meet with program leads and invited Larry Michaelsen, the architect of both UCM’s and UO’s integrated experiences, to Mankato to share his knowledge.
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United Prairie Bank Integrated Business Experience check presentation, 2018.
“We want the students to have agency and control of the process,” he says. “We make sure they have the tools. We have student company advisors [past participants in the program] there to make sure the teams don’t go too far wrong, but once you set it up, substantially they are deciding what they are going to do.” And the results are exciting. “It never ceases to amaze me,” says Dale. “When we give our students the chance to have some freedom, how creative they can be.” Even when students stumble, the lessons they take away are invaluable. “When we give that kind of freedom, there’s going to be failure,” she says. “It’s not a bad thing. They learn from it and then, what do you take from it? How do you make it better?” The IBE has been popular with students since its launch, but as every innovative leader knows, there’s always room for improvement. At the end of each semester, IBE faculty regroup to discuss what worked and what needs tweaking before launching a new cohort. “For example,” says Dale, “we noticed students weren’t quite grasping the importance of inventory management and how to go about setting that up. And so, what we would try to do then is give a little more guidance there, maybe come up with some questions for them to think about as they set up their inventory management system.” The attention to detail pays off. Not only are students getting a semester-long real-world business experience, they are carrying that with them throughout their time in the College of Business. Reising has found students who have gone through the IBE are, overall, more engaged in their other classes and better able to make connections between in-class theories and real-world practice.
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Benefits Beyond the Classroom
IBE and Beyond
Professor of Management Miles Smayling has been with the College of Business for more than 30 years and was an original member of the IBE faculty team. Because of what he observed among IBE students, he directed some of his research efforts toward understanding what makes it successful. In 2016 and 2017, Smayling published two articles based on his research into the IBE. He focused primarily on whether the IBE increased graduation rates and whether the IBE would be valuable in improving academic performance in other classes.
Research laid the groundwork for the IBE, but faculty’s commitment to best practices in pedagogy goes beyond the signature program.
“We found out that the IBE is good for graduation,” he says. “It increases graduation rates.” As for academic performance, “I just haven’t found anything,” says Smayling. “It doesn’t bother me because it simply says that in the IBE, we are in fact developing a skillset that might not be developed in a different area of the academic learning process.” Smayling’s research also uncovered some IBE outcomes that are harder to quantify. “I’m not sure what metric you would use to document it, but the interpersonal communication skills of the IBE folks were just really good,” he says. “We talked to them, and they said, ‘It’s because we spent so much time negotiating on our decisionmaking, you had to learn how to communicate your idea and be understandable.’” While less tangible from a research perspective, skills like communication, teamwork and innovation are exactly what companies are looking for in business school graduates. And a program like IBE that not only produces marketable skills for graduates but also encourages students to stay in school is certainly worth pursuing. Initially, students took the IBE as juniors—but Smayling’s research about the impact it had on retention influenced the College to move it to the second year. Engaging in the real-world learning of the IBE earlier helps students develop a vision of what their future could look like in school and postgraduation.
Pragman is currently looking into pedagogy in online or hybrid classes as she and others work to launch a brand new, fully online degree program within the College (see page 30). The IBE itself has provided a wealth of data for faculty researchers. Dale explored the relationship between personality type and team effectiveness among IBE students and presented her findings at the 2016 Midwest Academy of Management Conference. Dale and Reising examined how the IBE curriculum and coursework fulfill three metrics for continuous improvement established by business school accreditation body, AACSB: engagement, impact and innovation. “Our faculty are really passionate about innovation and pedagogy. We put that front and center,” says Flannery. “We are different in our approach to business education because of our research. It’s part of our culture.”
It all adds up to faculty living in that sweet spot at the intersection of business, practice and education. It’s more than just what they do; research and innovation have become part of the fabric that makes up the College of Business at Minnesota State Mankato. Perhaps Dewey, that early father of experiential education, said it best in his 1938 work “Experience and Education”: “What we want and need is education, pure and simple, and we shall make surer and faster progress when we devote ourselves to finding out just what education is and what conditions have to be satisfied in order that education may be a reality and not a name or a slogan.”
Kristin Scott, associate professor of Marketing and IBE faculty chair.
IBE: Up Close What does it take for a group of 20 individual business students to become a company? In the College of Business, it takes one semester, dedicated faculty and an innovative, real-world experience that has evolved into the College’s flagship offering. The Integrated Business Experience (IBE), now in its sixth year, invites a cohort of students to dedicate an entire semester to launching a business. Amid courses in management, marketing and finance, students develop, source and market a product and secure funding via a loan from United Prairie Bank. After the loan is repaid, profits are presented to a local charitable organization.
“It’s the confidence they develop,” says Flannery. “They begin to see the big picture rather than just a narrow view. That’s really what education should do for people—all of a sudden you have new eyes. All of a sudden you see the world in a different way.”
The IBE ran as a pilot program for three semesters before being added to the College of Business curriculum in 2013. During the pilot period, it became clear that the program needed a dedicated faculty lead to work closely with United Prairie Bank and provide leadership and coordination. Today, that role is filled by Kristin Scott, a professor of Marketing. Scott has taught in the program since 2013 and served as faculty lead for the past two years. Her role is to coordinate faculty meetings and external groups. She also manages student company advisors, learning platforms and assignments throughout the semester. In 2012, the IBE received the prestigious system-wide Minnesota State Excellence in Curriculum Programming Award. And in 2018, the business school accreditation body AACSB remarked that Minnesota State Mankato’s signature program “provides an outstanding example of realworld student engagement.”
IBE student company MN Comfort markets their handmade coaster packs.
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The Power of Partnership Alumnus and United Prairie Bank Chairman Stuart Sneer ’85 has championed the College of Business’ Integrated Business Experience since the beginning.
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tuart Sneer, chairman of United Prairie Bank, remembers his lunch with College of Business Dean Brenda Flannery clearly. It was 2012, and he had been invited to sit down with Flannery, then fairly new to her position as dean. They met downtown at Number 4. “It was supposed to be an hour lunch,” he says. “I think it lasted two-and-a-half hours.” The big idea that got Sneer so excited was the early stages of an integrated experience that would allow students to build and run their own business. The College of Business was looking for an industry partner to help shape and shepherd the program. “As Brenda was explaining it to me, I was like ‘You’ve got to be kidding me! This is a great concept,’” Sneer recalls. “I shared with her my experience as an alumnus [in the College of Business], and I thought, ‘If they had something like this when I was in school, I would have flourished.’” One of the most exciting aspects of Flannery’s proposal for Sneer was the idea that the IBE would be a truly integrated experience—meaning it wasn’t just open to College of Business students. “She said, ‘Understand this applies to the whole campus—an art student could apply to be in this, an engineering student, somebody from construction management could benefit from this,’” he says. “That really impressed me because it brought it all together: big ideas, real-world thinking. Then you’re walking your talk.”
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Sneer went back to United Prairie Bank and championed the initiative with his team. “I pushed the program really hard after my lunch with Brenda,” he says. “It was a genuine desire to be a supplemental part of a vision that someone like Brenda had.” United Prairie Bank has been the proud sponsor of the IBE since the beginning and a critical part of the program’s success. Each semester student-led companies make an actual loan presentation. While there is an element of coaching involved, they are required to go through the loan process just as any business would. Students now may even find themselves across the desk from Brett Feldman, a credit analyst at United Prairie Bank and an IBE alum. “It’s a very legit process,” says Sneer. “We want to put them in the hot seat, not to trip them up, but warm enough that it feels real.” For Sneer, it goes back to what he latched onto during that first lunch with Flannery: “I saw it, instantly bought into it and I know it’s the right thing to do,” he says. “I like to believe we’re helping to make a difference in young people’s lives, giving them an opportunity and opening a door that might not have ever been opened for them. … When you get a feel-good experience like that, I think we nailed it. And that’s what it’s all about.”
Bringing Research to the Street The Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship connects students with industry.
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cademic researchers within business schools often rely on industry partners to stay up on latest trends and best practices, but the relationship isn’t a one-way street. “For the industry person, access to an academic with a deep background in some topic may lead to insights they wouldn’t get from standard industry trade shows, blogs, etc.,” says Yvonne Cariveau, director for Minnesota State University, Mankato’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE). “Access to students with their fresh perspectives and the possibility of interesting them in the industry is a draw for industry as well.”
Yvonne Cariveau
Cariveau and her team at the CIE have taken that refrain to the streets, partnering with Mankato businesses in marketing, research and even web design.
Here are just a few of the ways the CIE is teaming up with industry.
• Kato Engineering/NIDEC Corporation teamed up with the CIE to conduct a study related to their parts and service department. Cariveau assembled a team of students who conducted a national survey in their industry and was able to identify over $1 billion in potential business for that department. The work generated at least six hot leads. • Encore Consignment and Bridal hired the Center to do a small observational study in its retail store. Cariveau invited students in the Marketing Club to conduct the market research and they visited the store, took pictures and did a detailed analysis with suggestions for improvement of the store and online image. The owner implemented some of the ideas and hired a student to assist with the store’s online image. • Fun.com hired the CIE to work on its shirts.com website. The site had been neglected and needed social media and SEO work to build up sales. The student team identified that the site actually needed a revamp to be successful, so the project shifted to a redesign and update of the site itself. The students also did keyword research and wrote 50 new product descriptions.
• Cariveau facilitated a connection with assistant professor of Management, Cheryl Trahms’ Strategic Management MBA class to partner with Jarraff Industries in St. Peter on a market analysis, providing the company with about 1,500 possible leads across three industries. Jarraff was pleased with the results and plans to follow up on the leads to generate business.
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THE BUSINESS OF
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Management faculty members delve into research topics in the ever-evolving world of health care.
When Marilyn Fox, Kathy Dale, Chris Brown Mahoney and Paul Schumann gather around a table for a cup of coffee, their mutual respect for each other’s work is obvious. Together, and in a variety of combinations, the professors of Management have conducted research and published dozens of papers on topics ranging from turnover intentions in nurse practitioners to the role of stress in the supervisor/direct report relationship. They all agree that as researchers, they’re stronger together than the sum of their individually stellar parts. “Paul’s a good thinker,” says Fox, “not just in this but in general.” Dale is adept at coming up with ideas for research and envisioning how the findings may directly impact the business
world. Fox is an excellent writer and editor, and Brown Mahoney holds the prize as the most statistical minded of the group. “I love to do the analysis, but once the analysis is done and I know what the answer is, I want to be off and running to the next question,” she says. “My co-authors are … more disciplined, so they kind of help ground me.” “We complement each other,” adds Fox. “We do.” __________________________________________________ Pictured at Tandem Bagels, from left: Marilyn Fox, Kathy Dale, Chris Brown Mahoney, Paul Schumann
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The following are excerpts from a conversation among Fox, Brown Mahoney, Schumann and Dale in which they discussed their research and its applications both locally and nationwide. Conversation edited for length by Sarah Asp Olson
On the regional impact of health care research: Schumann: It’s worth pointing out that over the last 20 plus years, Mankato has become more of a regional medical provider. Regional health care center. Fox: That’s true. Schumann: We have Mankato Clinic as a major provider. We have Mayo Clinic Health System as a major provider. We have Orthopedic and Fracture Clinic as a major provider, plus all the other related providers here in town. I think there’s a recognition to the College of Business that the health care industry is important internationally, nationally but also regionally. So, we’re seeing attention paid to it through curriculum development. Fox: Yes, we offer an MBA with a health care emphasis. Schumann: Our research feeds into that. Fox: You know, we [at Minnesota State Mankato] have a top nursing program too. Highly desirable, highly in demand. As people are aging, that whole industry, there’s a demand.
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On the value of business researchers digging into health care topics: Brown Mahoney: Well, health care has become more of a business. Fox: Yeah. In and of itself, but I think business pays way more attention. Schumann: Keep in mind that the health care industry is made up of a significant percentage of the employees being very professional, lots of education. So, things like burnout and turnover of these highly educated health care professionals is very expensive for the health care employers. As health care providers have been under cost containment pressure, they’ve been looking for ways, of course, to contain cost. But if they contain cost by under staffing with these health care professionals, it results in increased burnout and turnover. They’re digging themselves a deeper and deeper hole. I think we’re finally beginning to see at least some signs of realization of that problem. Fox: I think there are a lot of implications. There are implications for the way we treat people, how we manage them, how we manage costs, how we serve, how we design jobs, how we motivate. I mean I could go on and on. There’s just so many things that all fall in that basket. Brown Mahoney: Let’s say for example nurses. They take more sick days, they make more mistakes, they have a poor attitude and that means mistakes to patients and high cost to the health care system. … [These issues] affect both the access to health care and the quality of health care. In fact, that report that you just sent me, Paul, [said] one of the top three or four concerns that patients have in the quality of health care is the burnout of providers. It’s evident to patients.
On how they apply their research in the classroom: Dale: Because we all teach in management, we’re primarily talking about how to be better managers. We bring that into the classroom. Making sure that our goals aren’t conflicting, and that people understand their goals. Brown Mahoney: I think that particularly lately I have made attempts with all of the research I’ve done to include in the discussion and conclusion things that are useful for managers, because in academic research a lot of it is theoretical. To someone who’s working in management that might not even really make much sense unless it’s stated in a different way. Schumann: Something that I’ve done in my Human Resource Management class is to spend more time talking about turnover and retention management and the factors that drive employee turnover. I talk to my students On the global need for applied research, about the importance of things you can do to create higher levels of employee job particularly in health fields: satisfaction and practical things you can Brown Mahoney: I think one of the problems in the applied do to create higher levels of organizational management literature [is that] you have so many people writing things commitment and employee engagement. [saying] “you should do this, you should do that,” but they don’t provide So, I have incorporated some of the any data or information to back it up. You have to connect those dots. conclusions from my research in the topics I selected to cover in my classes Schumann: Research that would connect those dots, that shows how and given more emphasis to these issues. if a health care employer were to make these particular changes to the workplace and the treatment of health care professionals, those changes Fox: Ditto. Ditto for sure. Specifically, then have the impact of reducing burnout, reducing turnover, reducing I think what’s been interesting over the mistakes, reducing stress, reducing lost work time. years, I do a whole unit on stress and health in undergrad and grad. Students Fox: And hopefully saving money. are stressed, too. What Paul said about Schumann: All of these things then generate health-care savings. So, the managerial implications I think are some of these interventions that we’re talking about researching can in really, really huge. Which, the subject essence pay for themselves if the changes are implemented correctly. lends itself well to do that. It’s theoretical in many ways, but yet it’s very practical. Dale: I think a lot of our findings specifically in health care can be used As a business school our research is more as they relate to stress in other industries as well or at least give us ideas applied than it is just theory-based. of, how we can take this further and use it in other ways. Fox: You can study stress a lot of places, but [health care] is one place there’s a lot of it.
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ONLINE & SOCIAL MEDIA SUPERSTARS BY SAR AH ASP OLSON
Pew Research found that more than half of U.S. adults use more than one social network to stay in touch with friends and get their news—and increasingly to decide what to buy. In fact, according to a 2019 Forbes magazine article, “social media is no longer just a trendy marketing tactic—it’s a crucial one.” For marketers to use platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram effectively, they need a deep understanding of how consumers behave online. Enter the academics. The faculty in Minnesota State University, Mankato’s College of Business are keeping pace with the ever-expanding online world through innovative research that seeks to understand consumer behavior, purchasing patterns and even what drives them to click that like button. “[Social media] is so pervasive, and it’s relatively new in the grand scheme of things,” says Mark Hall, professor of Marketing at Minnesota State Mankato. “If we want to stay abreast of what’s happening in the real world, we have to have an understanding of how social media affects marketing.”
Read on for a look at the exciting and in-depth research by the College of Business’ very own online and social media superstars.
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Wade Davis Defamation and Twitter Trolls
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rofessor Wade Davis is a lawyer by trade. He has been with the College of Business for three years and teaches in the Department of Accounting and Business Law. Davis’ research focuses on free speech and defamation law in an online environment. And what better way to observe online slander than to hop on everyone’s favorite 280-character platform, Twitter? Recently, Davis dug into how defamation law plays out in the Twitterverse by looking at none other than the prolific Twitter troll*, ’80s actor James Woods.
In a paper published in the Journal of Critical Incidents, Davis and his co-author show professors how to use the lawsuit to teach defamation law in an online context and help students use social media in legal and savvy ways. A follow-up paper geared toward the legal community is forthcoming. What’s Next ➞ Davis and his co-author are jumping platforms and taking on YouTube in a paper examining copyright law in an online setting.
“He’s a conservative, pro-gun, antiliberal guy who loves to offend, but is funny at times, too,” says Davis. Woods has racked up more than 2 million followers and, naturally, attracted a few haters. One Twitter respondent implied Woods was addicted to cocaine, so Woods sued.
*Troll: One who antagonizes others online by deliberately posting inflammatory, irrelevant or offensive comments or disruptive content. MERRIAN-WEBSTER
Jianwei Hou Behind Online Auctions
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rofessor of Marketing Jianwei Hou has been studying consumer behavior online for most of his academic career. His interest in the platform started in 2005 as he was searching for a dissertation topic. At that time, online shopping, including auction sites like eBay, was relatively new. “I wanted to understand how [different] factors may influence online auctions,” he says. “My dissertation looked at the pricing part, how the online auction price will be influenced by a number of factors.” Thirteen years later, Hou is still fascinated by the online auction format and has expanded his research as the sites themselves have grown. He currently has written or contributed to 13 scholarly articles about online auctions with topics ranging from the winner’s curse to how shipping fees affect bidding attitudes. In a 2016 paper, published in the Electronic Commerce and Research Applications, Hou and his College of Business colleague Kevin Elliott dug into gender differences within online auctions. “We know gender, income, all those demographic factors, can influence consumer behavior,” says Hou. “We wanted to see how that can be applied to online auctions.”
The goal of the study was to fill a gap in research around gender differences in an online auction retail model (as opposed to a fixed-price model). Hou and Elliott compared motivations and purchasing behavior of male and female bidders and found marked differences in how men and women approach the bidding and buying process. Hou frequently brings his research into the classroom as he talks to students about pricing and online retailing. His work is also contributing to an industry where many retailers use an online auction format to attract consumers in an ever-expanding virtual retail environment. “Online auction is a mutating format,” he says. “If you understand consumer behavior and understand how customers bid it will help [businesses] set up online auction platforms.” What’s Next ➞ After more than two decades studying online auctions, Hou’s next research topic will veer in a slightly different direction. He’s teamed up with Elliott again, this time to delve into the world of mobile shopping.
EBay is the largest online auction platform in the world, with 179 million active buyers worldwide.* The platform launched in 1995 as AuctionWeb. EBAY, 2018
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Mark Hall, Gloria Meng, and Kevin Elliott Why Do We Facebook?
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acebook remains the most used and useful social media platform for marketers, according to the 2018 Sprout Social Index. The site also continues to attract more active users than most other online platforms—about 68 percent of Americans used Facebook in 2018, according to the Pew Research Center.
“We found dominance was a good predictor in how much pleasure they found,” says Hall. “If you feel like you’re in control on Facebook, you are much more likely to enjoy it.”
To dig into the why behind the likes and clicks, College of Business Marketing professors Kevin Elliott, Juan (Gloria) Meng and Mark Hall employed a research model that has been in use since the 1970s called Pleasure, Arousal, Dominance [PAD].
In 2017, Meng, Hall and Elliott published a second paper in the Journal of Technology Research that explores consumers’ attitudes toward their Facebook experiences through the PAD model as well as the Technology Acceptance Model.
The PAD model has been used to study things like consumer behavior and emotional connections to products. While the model has been used in an online context, Elliott, Hall and Meng are the first to employ it to study behaviors and attitudes around Facebook. “We wanted to know what drove people to Facebook,” says Elliott. “Basically, we were trying to predict attitudes and intentions toward using Facebook.” To begin, the researchers collected data from more than 1,000 adult Facebook users in the United States. They hypothesized that a user’s perceived dominance (or being in control) would have positive implications for both arousal and pleasure when using the platform.
Pleasure, the study found, positively impacts attitudes toward the platform, which in turn positively affects future use and intentions.
What’s Next ➞ Hall looks forward to digging deeper into the significance of control as a predictor for Facebook use. “Control has a lot of different dimensions to it,” he says. “Control could be, ‘Am I contributing to the Facebook discussion or the conversation? Am I being dominated by others? Am I confident what I’m seeing on Facebook is true and fair and honest? Am I confident what I share is only going to be seen by the people I want it to be seen by?’’’ Not pictured: Meng was in Japan working with industry, teaching and building partnerships with Japanese business schools.
80 million
Facebook has small- and medium-sized business pages FACEBOOK
Businesses that use Facebook: B2C:
98% | B2B: 89%
HOOTSUITE SOCIAL MEDIA BAROMETER, 2018
Kevin Elliott
Mark Hall
78% of American consumers have discovered a product to buy on Facebook KLEINER PERKINS INTERNET TRENDS REPORT, 2018
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MavBiz Goes Online Minnesota State University, Mankato is the clear business school choice for real-world learning. Now, working adults can take part in a world-class business school education from wherever they call home.
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tarting this fall, Minnesota State Mankato will have a new population of students who for the most part won’t step foot on campus.
Meet the Yin and Yang of the Department of Finance BY SAR AH ASP OLSON
The College of Business is set to launch its fully online Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree geared toward working adults. The degree allows adults who have completed an associate of science degree in business to work toward a BBA in just over two years while dedicating roughly 15 to 20 hours per week to their studies. The degree program was born out of conversations with working adults and partner institution, Riverland Community College. “[The adults] wanted to advance in their careers, and not having a college degree was hindering their progress,” says Claudia Pragman, professor of Management. “[The question became] what could we offer students who graduated with an AS in business from Riverland? That’s where the BBA came in.” The BBA is a cohort model, meaning a group of students moves through the program together, taking one five-week course at a time during the academic year and summer sessions. After eight terms—or a minimum of two and a half years—students graduate with their BBA. The fully online degree completion program is a first for the College of Business and could enhance the University’s efforts to welcome more students to Minnesota State Mankato. “We have this untapped market of working adults who cannot come to a traditional class,” says Kathy Richie, assistant professor of Management and director of MavBiz Online. “Education is the only thing that can never be taken away from a person. Everyone should have the opportunity—and we [now] have the tools to offer.”
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Industry and the Academy Dan Hiebert and Leon Chen started in the College of Business around the same time. Chen joined the faculty in 2010 as an assistant professor shortly after finishing his Ph.D. in risk management and insurance. That same year, while still with Ameriprise Financial, Hiebert was hired as an instructor for the Certified Financial Planning (CFP) continuing education program and taught out of Minnesota State Mankato’s Twin Cities location. It’s clear the colleagues hold each other in high regard, even though they come at the job of professor from very different angles.
MORE ON MAVBIZ ONLINE MavBiz Online’s innovative new Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree offers working adults a flexible path to career advancement that fits your life and work schedule. Through mastery-based courses with expert faculty, you’ll expand your business skills, gain confidence as a leader and work to achieve your career goals. A fully online degree completion program, the BBA’s five-week, one-course-at-a-time model ensures you’ll receive a well-rounded business education. You’ll take courses in management, marketing and finance, including a capstone course based on a real-world business project. Ideal for those who: • Have completed an Associate of Science (AS) degree in Business • Work full-time • Have limited time to attend traditional classes • Want to advance their career or explore a new field • Want to finish their Bachelor of Business degree For more information visit: cob.mnsu.edu/mavbizonline
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Extracurricular Activities
Leon Chen
Dan Hiebert
The Researcher
The Coach
Some people, notes Chen, think insurance and risk management are boring. But for him, delving into why we have insurance and what kind of role risk or uncertainty play in our everyday lives is fascinating. After two master’s degrees, Chen was feeling unsatisfied working in the financial service industry and as an IT professional. A fortuitous meeting with the president of the American Risk and Insurance Association set him on the path to becoming a researcher in the field of risk and insurance, such as insurance markets and ratings, investment strategies and financial risk management.
In 2007, while working at Ameriprise Financial, Hiebert was recruited to become a training manager. It was a natural fit for the former college football player and high school athletic coach, and it set Hiebert on a path that would eventually lead him from the boardroom to the classroom full time.
Hiebert and Chen spend a good portion of the day in their heads. Whether teaching or researching, there are numbers and theories and best practices to consider. So, when it comes to outside activities, it’s not surprising both colleagues are drawn to sports.
“Training has some elements of teaching and instructing,” he says. “I truly enjoyed it. I just kind of made the parallel leap [from] working with professionals to students.”
Chen has been a table tennis player since he was a child. When he came to the United States from Shanghai in 2000, he kept the hobby going.
Chen has published and refereed academic papers for some of the top journals in the field, such as the Journal of Risk and Insurance and the Risk Management and Insurance Review. It’s something his colleagues at Minnesota State Mankato respect and admire about him. “Leon is a consummate professional,” says Hiebert. “His research and activity from an academic standpoint are just—I don’t know how he does all of it. He is very productive, but he’s also able to translate those to real-life experiences. I think that’s a skill not a lot of academics have.” In the classroom, Chen focuses on the “whys” around issues in finance rather than just the questions of what and how. He brings in his own research from time to time, but more often seeks out work from others in the field as a jumping off point for students. “If you learn what other players in the financial market do, that’s not enough,” he says. “You have to understand why they do this, why that happens. That’s going to help you understand what may happen in the future.” For Chen, doing research isn’t only about contributing to the broader academic community or even moving the needle in industry practices; “it’s a manifestation of yourself, your inner thoughts,” he says. “In the process you become a better researcher and also at the same time you become a better person.”
Hiebert joined the College of Business as an adjunct instructor in 2010 and was asked to head up the CFP Program. Given his long career, Hiebert brings a wealth of industry knowledge and a fresh take on classroom instruction. It’s not unusual for his students to come to class and find themselves in a Jeopardy-style quiz game or to be assigned a “teach back,” where they’re required to learn a topic and teach it back to the class. “I look at myself more as a coach really,” he says. “That’s where academics is going from a classroom standpoint. We coach them through thinking skills to help them be better.” Hiebert plans to complete his Ph.D. from American College by the end of 2019. While he still maintains a small professional practice, it seems he’s found his calling as a coach and mentor within the halls of the College of Business. “Dan was helpful in our certificate program [so] when he told me he was going to go on and get a Ph.D. I definitely encouraged him to pursue that,” says Chen. “That’s right,” Hiebert interjects. “You wrote a letter of recommendation.” “Yeah I think so,” says Chen. “I see Dan as a very motivated individual who has a lot of industry experience who likes to communicate and help people develop. And that’s what people in academia should be doing.”
“It’s a sport you can play at different levels, you can play competitively and leisurely,” he says. He’s found volley partners in Mankato and the Twin Cities and even attends tournaments throughout the region. For Chen, it’s a hobby, a way to get some exercise and a release from a pretty cerebral day job. “If you hit the ball hard it makes you feel relaxed and helps you do your other work,” he says.
What do you admire most about your colleague?
Hiebert, a life-long athlete, admittedly couldn’t return one of Chen’s serves. Instead he gravitates toward running. He has run marathons and triathlons, but recently settled on obstacle courses and trail marathons as his activity of choice.
Dan: “Leon’s dedication and his productivity, he gets after it. He’s been a good friend to me and a good colleague. I just always appreciate him.”
“It’s like a marathon on a trail but you have [obstacles, like] monkey bars and climbing walls and you’re going through mud and going under barbed wire,” he says. Hiebert finished second in his age group in his first Minnesota Spartan Sprint Race, a four-mile, 18-obstacle race up and down the ski slopes at Welch Village, and qualified for the Spartan National Championships Both have excelled at their chosen extracurricular activities. But who could pick up the other’s sport quicker? The men look at each other:
Leon: “I admire Dan’s industry experience and his vast experience with students—how you can help so many people achieve their financial goals. It’s not just working for himself but helping other people realize their goals and how they can achieve their goals.”
Leon: “It has to be Dan.” Dan: “I’m terrible at table tennis.” Leon: “I don’t think I could do that.” Dan: “There’s no way I could do that.”
And, he notes with a chuckle, you get paid to do it.
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almost always starts small—a few dollars or hours here, a few more there—and grows.
ACCOUNTING INVESTIGATORS
“The minute you start thinking the company owes you, you’ve crossed that line,” she says.
Professors Connie O’Brien and Byron Pike leverage real-world experiences in the classroom and through research.
She also stresses to her students that, while often investigative in nature, forensic accounting isn’t police work. “You’re basically pulling out the data and figuring out how it ties together,” she says. “It’s the company’s data, they can decide if they want to prosecute or ignore it. You might have strong feelings, but you aren’t the judge.”
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s career origin stories go, Connie O’Brien has a pretty good one. The assistant professor of Accounting was still an undergraduate at the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth and in the middle of her first internship in the “real world,” when she turned her boss in for fraud. “I knew there was something going on and I didn’t want to be part of it,” she says. “I didn’t know what to do so I went to my advisor at Scholastica.” At that point, O’Brien thought she had caught a $20,000 discrepancy in the company’s books. It turned out to be much worse and ended in a prison sentence for her former employer. For O’Brien, the real-life lesson in corporate fraud turned into a rewarding career in the private sector assisting businesses struggling with cash flow issues. “I’d go in and I’d help restructure them and I always found fraud,” she says. “Whether it’s management fraud, employee theft, time theft, consumer fraud … whether it’s $100,000 or $10,000, I’ve never had a business that didn’t have to deal with it.” O’Brien decided to leave industry in 2011 and earned her doctorate from
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The Flip Side of Fraud Detection
Georgia State University. Her dissertation dug into the standardized tests companies use to predict how likely it is a potential employee will commit theft on the job. “I wanted to look at whether or not they’re reliable, so I took them into prisons,” she says. After giving the tests to convicted felons—all behind bars for committing fraud—O’Brien found that the reliability of the tests is only about 50 percent. O’Brien still draws on her research with prisoners, showing videos in the classroom to familiarize students with the type of person who is capable of stealing from a company. Spoiler: There’s not just one type, but they’re usually really charming. “You have to be,” she says. “You cannot steal $100,000 from individuals without being charming.” One of the first lessons O’Brien passes on to her students, though, is that it’s a slippery slope. Fraudulent activity
Associate professor of Accounting Byron Pike’s career path may not be as dramatic, but his research stands on its own. Since joining the College of Business, Pike has had articles published in the top 10 academic journals and was the first faculty member from the College of Business to receive the prestigious Douglas R. Moore Faculty Research Lectureship in 2017. Pike’s field of study, which he refers to as behavioral accounting research, draws from his dual background in financial statement auditing and psychology. “In some respects, I’m a psychology researcher who is using an accounting context,” he says. One of his most recent studies addresses how mindset can seriously affect an auditor’s ability to detect fraud. “Historically, auditors are some of the worst at detecting fraud,” he says. “It’s not their fault. It’s just that someone who is committing fraud is trying to conceal it. … It’s hard for someone who is not around all the time to detect these deceptive behaviors.”
Pike found that by asking auditors to get into a forensic mindset before conducting financial statement audits, they were better able to detect fraud. In both the high and low risk situations, auditors primed with a forensic mindset made significantly higher fraud risk assessments related to the client in the experiment. There are very few studies that look into mindset within an accounting context, and Pike’s research is the first to look at the adoption of a forensic mindset in auditing. What he’s most interested in, though, are the real-world applications. “We live in a world where you have to do more with less, where expectations are getting higher regardless of the discipline,” he says. “What we found is that auditors are more abundant and cheaper than forensic specialists [and] with a simple mindset manipulation they were able to not only adopt that forensic mindset but also were better at fraud detection as they adopted attributes from both the forensic and auditing domains.”
Fun With Numbers Much later in her career, O’Brien followed up with her first employer and found they had made positive changes to the company culture. For her, and for Pike, that’s what the work is about— finding a problem and making it better. “The greatest fulfillment you get is by devising a decision aid or a mechanism or a different approach to improving a possible deficiency,” says Pike. “The deficiency might get the highlight, but the takeaway is generally going to be how you can improve upon practice.”
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Our Greatest Resource
STUDENTS SOUND OFF
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hat makes a great university? A pristine campus? A vibrant student center? Great food? All of those things, and more, play a part, but when it comes right down to it “great faculty make great programs, colleges and universities,” says Dean of the College of Business, Brenda Flannery.
What’s Great About College of Business Faculty? Photo by Social Butterfly
And when it comes to student’s choice of study area within the College of Business, faculty play a big part in that as well.
Jaden Schmeisser Qualicum Beach, British Columbia Major: Marketing Graduation Date: May 2019
“[The College of Business faculty] are always willing to listen. In a world full of tight schedules and busy calendars, they do a great job at setting aside time for students who are looking for help, guidance and motivation. If it weren’t for the College of Business faculty or staff, I wouldn’t have the resources to become the best version of myself.”
Nathan Lee South Korea Major: Accounting Graduation Date: May 2019
“If it weren’t for the College of Business faculty or staff, I wouldn’t have stayed in the accounting program. They have given me hope and encouragement that got me through all the difficult courses.”
Kwadwo Owusu Shakopee, Minnesota Major: Accounting & Finance Graduation Date: December 2020
“As a result of constantly going to my professors’ office hours for help and advice, I have come to appreciate the diverse career experiences College of Business faculty have. I have found the advice I’ve received to be distinctive, refreshing and helpful.”
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Jaden Schmeisser, Katarina Haimes, Lucas Arndt
Katarina Haimes
Lucas Arndt
St. Charles, Minnesota Major: Finance Certificate: Business Analytics Graduation Date: May 2019
Owatonna, Minnesota Major: Management Graduation Date: May 2019
“The College of Business faculty and staff truly care about the students and want to make a difference in the future generation. [They] have truly been an inspiration to my life in and outside of the classroom. Each opportunity I have taken within the College of Business has led to bigger and greater opportunities.”
Sara Maslakow Mapleton, Minnesota Major: Accounting, 2018 Master of Science in Accounting, 2019
“If it weren’t for the College of Business faculty and staff, I wouldn’t have taken steps so early in my professional career, if at all, to achieve what I have today. After graduation, I will always remember to give the extra effort, step out of the comfort zone and take the chance to stand out.”
“Our teachers design a lot of their classes to be centered around what working in a real job might be like: Attendance is marked as PTO and sick days, ‘buying’ your points instead of working for a percentage, and most importantly focusing our learning on real-world experiences.”
Courtney Jarvis Antigua and Barbuda Major: Finance and Accounting Graduation Date: 2020
“I have never had any trouble making an appointment with any of my instructors or advisers. They are full of career and academic advice. Everyone I talk to has had different experiences, which gives me a diversity of perspectives.”
“Faculty are important influencers on students in choosing a business major that fits their personality, passion and professional aspirations, and in pursuing the kinds of internships that will broaden their horizons and enable them to apply what they have learned in the classroom in a wide variety of ways,” says Provost
Marilyn Wells. “Beyond the classroom, [College of Business] faculty serve as advisors for 15 student organizations, such as AgToday, an organization designed to promote the growth and awareness of economic vitality shaped by the opportunities within agriculture; Enactus, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring students to improve the world through entrepreneurial action; and Beta Gamma Sigma, an organization that recruits students who are the best in business, among many other clubs. Faculty also lead study away opportunities such as the New York Study Tour and Belize Fair Trade Study Abroad (see page 52) and mentor students at prestigious national competitions such as the Diversity Case Competition.”
Here are just a few ways the University and the College of Business demonstrate support for faculty: • Research excellence awards that provide faculty with research funding. • Professional Development Fridays that include lunch-and-learns with industry partners. • Professional development opportunities on a wide range of new teaching innovations, technology in the classroom, leadership and global competencies offered through the University’s Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning and the Center for Excellence in Scholarship and Research. • Minnesota State system initiatives such as the Luoma Leadership Academy, collaboration grants and Shark Tank funding. • The University’s Douglas R. Moore Faculty Research Lectureship, the Distinguished Faculty Scholars and College of Business Research Excellence Awards. • Elevating Faculty Distinction and Academic Achievement is one of six of the University’s Strategic Directions 2016–2021. • Faculty sabbaticals, lasting from one semester to one year. • Investment in technology, databases and other research tools. • National and international travel to collaborate with other researchers and present results at conferences.
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Agribusiness Opportunities Abound
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hane Bowyer is calling from his car. He’s on his way to class. The assistant professor of Management is finishing up his first year as a member of the Minnesota Agriculture and Rural Leadership (MARL) class of 2020. MARL is a two-year educational experience for agricultural and rural leaders throughout the state. This seminar, the sixth of 10 he’ll attend throughout the program, focuses on the mining, timber and fishing industries.
agriculture and food is in the public eye,” says Bowyer. “It’s so important that we want to make sure we grow healthy food and make sure the supply chain is there to feed the world as we move forward, and that’s all [related] to business.”
Starting next fall, students can choose to minor in Agribusiness and Food Innovation. The unique offering leverages the College’s strong innovation and entrepreneurship focus as well as a region “So, all agriculture related,” he says. “I’m bursting with opportunities for business learning and bringing back these experiences graduates who can speak the language of to the students. It’s mostly farmers and people agriculture. in the ag industry, I’m kind of the oddball. “Minnesota is very big with the food But it’s really been very beneficial.… I’ve even industry,” Bowyer says. “Hormel, Cargill, been able to connect some of the people in General Mills, Land ‘O Lakes, all these the MARL program to our students [for] large companies that our students are internships or just shadowing.” already going to work for; it gives them Over the past several years, the College of Business has leveraged regional expertise and resources like MARL to create inroads and opportunities for students in agribusiness. Last year, Bowyer launched a Business in the Modern Ag Economy course that immediately filled up. Students were so inspired by the potential for agribusiness careers, they began the AgToday student organization that aims to gives students even more resources and contact with industry leaders. “For us in the College of Business, there is so much innovation going on and
another leg up.”
As does the intentional partnerships between the College of Business and community agricultural organizations— like GreenSeam, a regional effort to develop and promote the area’s agricultural assets—that have led to further student connections, internships and even careers with ag-related companies.
In support of the University-wide focus on agriculture, the College of Business has partnered with the College of Science, Engineering and Technology (CSET) and others in course development and events like 2017’s AgBiz Business, Technology and Natural Sciences Internship Panel. In the coming years, Bowyer anticipates even more agribusiness opportunities across campus and around the world. He’s currently working to develop a study abroad opportunity in Spain, which in addition to robust greenhouses and pork production, remains the world’s number one olive oil exporter. “Food is always going to be there,” he says. “We are all going to need to eat and we are all connected to it somehow. By [offering] these opportunities to [our] students, it’s going to allow for more jobs in the future.”
Research Around the World Whether gathering data or sharing best business practices across borders, Minnesota State University, Mankato faculty are going global, with a lot to show for it.
“For our [industry] to grow, we need people to see and open their minds [when] looking at agriculture,” says Sam Ziegler, director of GreenSeam.
BY SA RA H ASP OLSON
Agribusiness Across Campus Next fall, Minnesota State Mankato will launch the Daryl and Karyl Henze Student Ag Innovators Program. The year-long experience is open to students from across campus who are interested in learning more about agribusiness. With a focus on agribusiness and leadership, the initiative will examine a wide array of rural and agricultural industries and issues through research and hands-on educational activities across the state.
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Top: Shane Bowyer Bottom: Business in the Modern Ag Economy students teamed up to present a variety of agribusiness-related topics to about 70 local high school students.
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ngela Titi Amayah, Oksana Kim and Connie O’Brien have traveled the world, exploring what it means to be in business outside the United States. From scouring Russian corporations’ financial statements to teaching forensic accounting practices in Japan to understanding how women lead in sub-Saharan Africa, the College of Business faculty add value to conversations around globalization, gather empirical evidence that leads to improved practices, and broaden the horizon for students here at home. “Everyone is keen on learning how things work overseas,” says Kim. “Everything is connected. It’s no longer enough to know only the corporate and business rules of the United States, you have to go beyond that.”
How Do Women Lead?
A Data Set to Grow On
“I have always been interested in the roles women play in business and in society at large,” says ANGELA TITI AMAYAH. “I found that though growing, there isn’t much in the literature about women leaders in sub-Saharan Africa.”
OKSANA KIM grew up in Kazakhstan, has studied in Russia, Australia and the United States, and worked in Moscow as an auditor. Her unique combination of Russian language fluency and understanding of the rules and regulations governing Russian markets has allowed her to cull a wealth of data from Russian companies’ financial statements.
In her 2017 paper, “Experiences and Challenges of Women Leaders in Sub-Saharan Africa,” published in The African Journal of Management, Titi Amayah examined the experiences of female managers and leaders in sub-Saharan Africa through media depictions and newspaper articles. “This was an exploratory study to find out more about challenges specific to their culture and society,” she says. “And how they have successfully navigated those challenges. The goal is to expand the study to larger sample and explore regional differences.” The exploration led Titi Amayah to some surprising results. Her observation showed women playing a much larger role in the economy and societal changes than what the media review revealed. “At the same time,” she says. “the picture is a lot more positive than the stereotypes/myths would have us believe.” Titi Amayah joined Minnesota State Mankato’s College of Business faculty in the fall of 2018. Her research into leadership outside the Western world allows her to bring a cross-cultural perspective to students, particularly in her Human Behavior class. “Research has shown that culture does impact behavior and experiences,” she says. “I think to have a more complete view of the leadership phenomenon, all populations and cultures (or as many as possible), should be researched.”
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Kim has been conducting research on global markets since joining the College of Business faculty eight years ago. In her most recent book, “The Development and Challenges of Russian Foreign Governance I: The Roles and Functions of Boards of Directors,” Kim examines corporate governance and the role of boards of directors within Russian public companies. The book, released in April, presents new and previously unknown findings on corporate governance in Russia. “The reason why this title became possible is because I had one year of sabbatical leave where I spent nine months hand collecting data from financial statements from Russian companies [in Russian],” she says. “I compiled a huge data set. That made it possible for me to conduct several studies and basically prepare a summary of findings in the form of this book. These findings have not been known until today.” The data Kim painstakingly collected during her sabbatical year have set her up to present more new and novel findings about governance structures behind public companies. Kim and College of Business professor of Accounting Byron Pike have been awarded a departmental research grant for the coming year to evaluate the dual audit system within Russian companies and its implications on audit quality.
Invitations to Audit Professor of Accounting CONNIE O’BRIEN has been asked by universities and governments around the world to come and share her expertise in fraud detection and forensic accounting. While teaching at another university, she traveled to Scotland to research U.S. and foreign government partnerships involving fraud detection and prosecution. In 2018, a colleague from the American Accounting Association’s Forensic Accounting section (an organization for which O’Brien serves as a board member) asked her to travel to Japan to help several large universities establish their first ever fraud programs. And just this year, O’Brien was awarded a fellowship by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and the China Education Association for International Exchange. She traveled to China in June and spent three weeks learning about Chinese culture and business practices in order to develop an international forensic accounting course. O’Brien has always been interested in business practices abroad, particularly how firms handle fraud and threats from international sources. The benefit, she says is a deeper understanding of the nuances— the shades of gray—that exist in accounting, depending on the cultural contexts, structures and norms of the country. “A lot of times when we’re talking about fraud, students perceive it as very black and white,” she says. “When you’re dealing with another country, they really don’t have the same perspectives, they don’t have the same policies, cultures. That’s something you have to be able to express to students: you’re dealing with another country, you’re dealing with another culture in order to understand what’s going on in those books, you have to be able to get to know [the culture].” And that, says O’Brien, only comes from being there. “You really have to bring yourself there and get immersed in that culture to understand it and the differences,” she says. “All of our businesses are becoming global businesses; we have to work in a global economy. When we’re dealing with global industries, you have to have a good understanding of [the differences].” O’Brien is currently working on a paper for publication on the assessment of fraud risk in foreign financial statements.
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FIVE YEARS OF
BIG IDEAS Student teams present bold products and exciting innovations at this year’s Big Ideas Challenge.
S
even student teams presented as part of the fifth annual Big Ideas Challenge in April. Judges listened to pitches for an all-in-one electrical engineering tool, an online wellness platform and a suite of products designed to keep runners safe on the road. Ultimately, though, it was Marketing major Maggie Knier who took home the grand prize for her company, 2True Headbands. What was the deciding factor? “She was just a great presenter,” said Justin Vogel, regional property manager at Lloyd Companies and one of the afternoon’s judges. “She’s got a lot of traction and already has some sales. It was a tough choice.” In addition to ranking contestants’ six-minute presentations, judges score each company’s written business plan and take into consideration who is most likely to take their business to the next level. Since launching her company eight years ago (when she was just 14), Knier has demonstrated the ability to grow sales even while going to school full time. Knier, who makes and ships all of her stay-put headbands from her college apartment, will use the money to ramp up her marketing efforts. Her win also gives her automatic entry as a semifinalist in the statewide entrepreneurial competition, the MNCup.
Wind Energy, Ride Shares and a Marker that Won’t Quit Knier wasn’t the only one to walk off the stage with a big check. Last year’s grand prize winners, EnduraMark, took home third place and $2,000 for their line of refillable markers. Engineering students Abishek Rana and Manik Maharjan took both second place and the audience choice award (a total of $5,000) for their ride sharing platform, Hopynn. As part of the University’s We Have Ag initiative, the Big Ideas Challenge featured a separate category for agriculture, food and beverage innovations. CEED Energy, headed by mechanical engineering student David Bassey, took the $3,000 prize for its smallscale vertical axis wind turbine that allows home gardeners to power greenhouses year-round.
Innovation Forward Just before the judges returned from deliberation, Dean Brenda Flannery took the stage to thank the event’s sponsors and community mentors and to offer a message of support for all in attendance. “I hope you understand that you all are part of a movement to launch the next generation of businesses,” she said. “We know the best things come from bringing resources together.”
From top: David Bassey; Judges listen to student presentations; Student pop-up store; Maggie Knier and Justin Vogel, regional property manager, Lloyd Companies. Photos by Social Butterfly
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Katie Torgeson
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1 Million Cups (1MC) was launched in 2012 by the Ewing Marion Kauffman
Foundation. It’s a free program designed to “educate, engage and inspire entrepreneurs around the country.” Powered by volunteers, 1MC is now in more than 180 communities nationwide—and thanks to Yvonne Cariveau, the director of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Mankato is one of them. Cariveau launched 1MC in Mankato in November 2017 after visiting the St. Paul chapter and deciding it was a perfect fit for the Center. She is still the primary point of contact with the national chapter and works with a team of student volunteers to host meetings and market 1MC around the city. “We are unique among other 1MCs because we have students presenting,” she says. “1MC has been a unifying and connecting thing for the community. It has put students and community members in the same room sharing ideas and learning together. It has put student entrepreneurs in front of area people who have helped their businesses financially, with space, referrals and more.” Cariveau, who also heads up the Big Ideas Challenge, encourages students participating in Big Ideas to sign up for 1MC before heading to the Ostrander stage. “They can practice their pitches and get feedback,” she says. “They also make connections that help them develop their ideas a bit more. Our Big Ideas first prize winner this year presented in December at 1MC.”
STAFF IMPACT
for student success Individually, they’re known as Luke Howk, Jen Cucurullo, Dustin Sedars, Linda Meidl and Bryan Hoffman. Together, the College of Business staffers make up a special operations team with a single mission: get the job done for students. Every decision they make, every new idea they bring to life, every email they respond to from a panicked student or an industry bigwig—it all contributes to making College of Business students successful. They’ve dedicated their working hours to the College of Business, but before our staffers stalked the offices of Morris Hall, Luke, Jen, Dustin, Linda and Bryan were out in the world amassing years of experience. And lucky us, the College gets to reap the rewards.
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The Big Ideas Challenge is a new-venture competition that encourages and
celebrates students’ innovative business ideas. The Big Ideas Challenge is open to any Minnesota State Mankato student or alum within two years of graduating. Individual and team entries are welcome. The competition gives students the opportunity to compete for money to fund their business. Thank you to Primary Sponsor, Craig Lloyd ’72 of Lloyd Companies for continuing support of the Big Ideas Challenge for a fifth consecutive year. Many thanks also to BankVista, CrankyApe and Jones Metal for their generous support and donation of prize funds and to All American Foods for their sponsorship of the Agriculture/Food/Beverage Division.
READ ON TO MEET OUR ALL-STAR SPECIAL OPS TEAM.
To learn more about the Big Ideas Challenge, visit cob.mnsu.edu/bic
Entrepreneurship and the College of Business The College of Business is committed to the success of our would-be and current entrepreneurs. We offer students a diverse menu of opportunities whether they’re looking to launch a business or explore innovation within companies, including: • The College of Business Minor in Entrepreneurship and Innovation for all majors • The United Prairie Bank Integrated Business Experience • The Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
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JEN CUCURULLO
DUSTIN SEDARS
Title: Director of Marketing and Communications Years on Staff: 1
Title: Director of Development Years on Staff: 1
What do you do? All things marketing, branding, communications and events. I try to use storytelling to capture what goes on in the College of Business using social media, print, events and the website and make sure our college is relevant and present. In addition to coordinating our college and departmental events, I also oversee monthly communication to students. What were you doing before you joined the staff at College of Business? As Regional Director for the American Heart Association, I oversaw marketing, communications and event planning for our region. Before that I lived in Italy and published and edited a travel manual using my own photography and writing. What real-world experiences make you great at your job? A plethora of industry experience in marketing and event planning. I’m passionate about going out there and experiencing life, and that helps me encourage our students to do the same. At age 34, I took a leave of absence from my career and took the study abroad trip I never got to do in college. I traveled Italy and southern France to help publish and edit a travel manual. I sold everything I owned in the U.S. and returned to work for Florence University of the Arts while taking classes in design and marketing. Those years were some of the richest when it came to racking up experiences. I traveled, fell in love, ate amazing seafood and took pictures. I met fascinating people from all walks of life. How does that translate to my role in the College? Building relationships and being authentic is the best form of marketing and communications! What is your proudest moment as a College of Business staffer? I’d been on the job for one month when I was informed the College needed to host a Sesquicentennial alumni event. I had a team of two dedicated and hard-working students and two months to put it together. The result was Maverick Icons, an incredible University-wide event featuring four successful alumni. Nearly 300 people attended, and my team and I learned a ton in the process. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever given a student? Say yes to enriching experiences, travel and do you. And do it solo! What have College of Business students taught you? The students that I work with and that I meet daily in the College impress me beyond belief. They are doing things that I never dreamed of at that age. My team of three—Courtney Lee, Kayla Rogeberg and Maddi Oines—inspire me daily. I’m so impressed with what they bring to the table creatively, professionally and personally.
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What do you do? I engage alumni and friends with the College of Business in ways that are meaningful to them. What were you doing before you joined the staff at the College of Business? I graduated from the College of Business as an undergraduate and MBA. I spent most of my professional career in management in the telecommunications industry. I was lucky enough to run my own business for a year and a half before coming into this role. What real-world experiences make you great at your job? The real-world experiences that have helped me the most in my role now are networking and learning how to interact with so many different people. Because I meet with so many different people with different backgrounds, stories and passions, it’s essential for me to know how to relate to them and help connect them with their passion at the University. What is your proudest moment as a College of Business staffer? Our annual College of Business Scholarship Reception is my favorite event. It’s a culmination of a lot of hard work, and it’s great to see our amazing scholarship donors and our student scholarship recipients in the same room. It’s truly a celebration of our students and our fantastic donors. It’s also wonderful to see the interaction between the students and the donors. What is your life motto? Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning to dance in the rain. What have College of Business students taught you? I’m amazed with how our students are able to think outside the box. It’s so great to hear of some of the entrepreneurial ideas that come from them. I have really learned how to look at life from different perspectives with how they approach problem solving.
BRYAN HOFFMAN Title: Director of Technology Years on Staff: 18 years (6 in COB) What do you do? I work with faculty, staff and students to develop and plan the technology strategic priorities and College initiatives. I provide leadership and best practices for the College in technology development and strategy. I collaborate with faculty and academic leadership to upgrade the effectiveness and efficiency of the college’s instructional technologies. What were you doing before you joined the staff at the College of Business? I’ve held a variety of positions in central ITS at the University.
What real-world experiences make you great at your job? Being an adjunct faculty at the University gives me the opportunity to instruct and learn from the students, which enhances my role in the College. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever given a student? An adaption from a quote that I read in the Wall Street Journal: You are who you are. You’re not the person sitting next to you in class. You’re not your parents. Or your teacher. Or your friends. Who you were yesterday is not who you will be tomorrow. We all seek knowledge, but what separates you from the pack is what you do with your knowledge. It feeds you. It encompasses everything you do and who you become. Understanding this will shape you professionally and personally. Take your information, your education, and do something great with it.
LUKE HOWK Title: Director of Corporate Partnerships and Professional Development Years on Staff: 5 What do you do? I am a strategic connector. I have the opportunity to work alongside my team to broker mutually beneficial partnerships between industry, the University and our business talent. We help students develop professionally through internships and other experiences, consult with companies on talent acquisition strategies and connect corporations with research opportunities and other ways to collaborate with the academy. What were you doing before you joined the staff at the College of Business? Providing consultative HR, talent development and talent acquisition services to leaders in the technology, legal and retail industries. What real-world experiences make you great at your job? Both completing internship experiences early and stepping outside my comfort zone to be innovative in my work have shaped my career. I was fortunate to complete internships at Kraft Foods and Consolidated Communications before graduation. Later on, the experience that altered my career trajectory involved stepping sideways from my HR career to start something new alongside Dean Flannery in the College of Business.
LINDA MEIDL Title: Student Relations Coordinator Years on Staff: 25 (16 in the COB) What do you do? My role is very broad. In simple terms, I recruit, promote and coordinate advising for all undergraduate students in the College of Business. I also work closely with the dean and faculty in the College of Business on curriculum and student initiatives. What were you doing before you joined the staff at the College of Business? I was an Assistant Director in the Office of Admissions and was the transfer specialist, coordinated academic scholarships, publications, campus visit programs and tour guides. What real-world experiences make you great at your job now? I often joke with students I never really left college. After I earned my bachelor’s degree, I worked in admissions for a private four-year college. When I got married, I moved to Mankato and worked in admissions at Minnesota State Mankato. I completed my master’s degree while working full time. Eventually, I transitioned to the Student Relations Coordinator role in the College of Business. Since my entire professional career has been in higher education, I have seen many changes. As a transfer specialist, I learned a lot of details about the transfer process from an institutional and system level. So many students are starting college with credits or transferring from other institutions so understanding the transfer process and policies is essential. What is your proudest moment as a College of Business staffer? I work with students across the higher education continuum—from prospective high school students to college graduates, including students who come from more non-traditional backgrounds. I think my proudest moments have been when students thank me for helping them reach their goals. For students to even think I contributed to their success is a great feeling and is why I do this kind of work. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever given a student? In conversations with students, I often ask them “What are you doing to help yourself be successful?” This often leads to good conversations about utilizing their resources, time management, goal setting, networking and working toward their goal of graduating and finding that first job.
What is your proudest moment as a College of Business staffer? There are many proud moments when you’re helping develop the next generation of business talent. It’s hard to beat graduation day. What is your life motto? Greatness is usually found outside a person’s comfort zone.
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INDUSTRY EXPERTS, Classroom Connoisseurs
The word adjunct means “to be connected or added to something, typically in an auxiliary way.” Adjunct faculty within the College of Business at Minnesota State University, Mankato may drive to campus once a week, or even teach online courses from the back of an RV, but these industry professionals are far from auxiliary. They bring a wealth of knowledge and real-world knowhow and offer students a rich and complementary classroom experience. Here’s a look at three of our expert adjuncts and their pre-teaching careers that make them invaluable to the College of Business.
Retired, National Partner Manager, Symantec Instructor, Management Information Systems
She also earned an MBA from Minnesota State Mankato along the way. In the summer of 2017, Karstens reached out to the College of Business to let them know she’d be interested in teaching. On May 4, 2018, she retired early from Symantec, and on May 10 she received an offer letter from the College of Business. Karstens spent that summer researching everything she could about teaching college students. She leveraged existing faculty course materials and added in her own knowledge and expertise in software industry sales and marketing.
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Vice President–Bond Portfolio Manager Federated Insurance Instructor, MavFund Before joining the adjunct faculty at Minnesota State Mankato, John Hylle, vice president at Federated Insurance in Owatonna, had been teaching for several years in the MBA program at the University of St. Thomas’ Gainey Center in Owatonna. When the center closed, Hylle was contacted about an opening for an investment professional at Minnesota State Mankato. “It was [professor of Finance] Steve Wilcox’s idea that [the Foundation] set aside $250,000 to invest to set up a class where the students would pick stocks to invest in,” he says. Hylle thought the idea had merit and signed on to be the faculty lead for what would become the Maverick Fund (MavFund). Since 2011, Hylle has worked with the College of Business to develop, implement and teach a hands-on equity investing course for juniors and seniors.
Carolyn Karstens
Carolyn Karstens earned her undergraduate degree from Minnesota State Mankato while working full time as a retail manager and having her children. On what she describes as sheer force of energy and personality, she earned a position with CWC/Firepond and eventually moved her way up to management. Over the course of her 20-plus year career, she held sales and management positions for IBM, Taylor Corporation and Symantec, where she closed out her career as a national partner manager.
John Hylle
She started out in the fall of 2018 with 36 students in person. Last spring, Karstens migrated her class to an online platform and now travels the country with her husband in their RV. She interacts with students through web chats and course blogs, and she’s never loved a job more. “Teaching is so different than working in the Carolyn Karstens draws on her years corporate world and it’s also of professional experience in her much more rewarding!” current role as adjunct instructor in she says. “I really feel like the College of Business. what I’m teaching will carry on in these amazing adults just starting out. I can’t tell you how many times I put my heart into a business or project, and years later the company closed, or the project was replaced. This time I feel like my work really and truly matters.”
“I think the biggest thing is the uniqueness of the class,” says Hylle. “What I like about it is it’s real world. I give the students direction, but they make the actual decisions [about] what stocks we sell, what stocks we hold.” As a seasoned professional, Hylle is uniquely qualified to incorporate real-world finance and investing strategies into classroom discussions. He continues to monitor the markets and use his experience and expertise to advise students’ investment decisions.
Dick Osborne Retired, CPA Instructor, graduate level courses in taxation, including tax research, taxation of partnerships and taxation of corporations Dick Osborne’s background is primarily in public accounting. After graduating from Minnesota State Mankato, he spent four years with a Big Eight accounting firm and then worked a year with Jostens tax department. He returned to Mankato and public accounting to close out his fulltime work—though he still does some consulting. He retired in 2013 Dick Osborne views and started teaching in the College his graduate students of Business that same year. as colleagues. Osborne enjoys working with graduate students, many of whom are already working in the field. Because of this, he sees himself more as a peer than a teacher. “I see my role as someone to help them in their career,” he says. “I am currently teaching partnership taxation. This is an area of tax law that is very complicated and confusing and takes much study and work to become conversant in its application. … I think it would be much more difficult for someone to get up to speed on this topic without having taken a class such as this. The fact that adjuncts are people who actually work in an area brings a different perspective than does an instructor who is more academic.”
Taught by John Hylle, MavFund students learn the ins and outs of investing. Here, students use the Thomson Reuters terminals to track investments.
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Maverick Icons Inspire Engaging entrepreneurs, successful business leaders, inspiring conversation and big ideas.
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ast October, Minnesota State University, Mankato College of Business hosted an event during the University’s Sesquicentennial week in which four alumni shared experiences from their inspiring and successful careers. Rhoda Olsen ’75, owner, CEO and president of Great Clips; Daren Cotter ’04, founder of Inbox Dollars; Robyn Waters ’75, a Target executive and author of trend books; and John Frawley ’88, president of the Minnesota Zoo, presented in front of nearly 300 attendees in the Verizon Center Banquet Hall. Moderator and College of Business Dean Brenda Flannery led participants in a fireside-chat style conversation about the ups and downs of a career in business, as well as how each incorporated their personal values, connections and passions into their work. The audience was excited to hear how the Minnesota State Mankato alumni took their big ideas and developed them into big successes.
(Top left) President Richard Davenport and College of Business Dean Brenda Flannery pose with alumni speakers. (Left to right) Participants Rhoda Olsen, John Frawley, Robyn Waters and Daren Cotter present before an engaged audience. (Right) Flannery welcomes Waters to the stage for a fireside chat.
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Mavericks Without Borders
Broadening Horizons Across
Wade Davis was a debater in college, developing his research and advocacy skills through real-life experiences. When he joined the College of Business, the associate professor of Business Law immediately knew he wanted to create a way for his students to have similar high-impact learning experiences. A study abroad tour just made sense.
College of Business faculty plan grand adventures to get students out of their comfort zones and into real-world learning experiences.
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or college students who opt to take their learning on the road— whether to another country or here in the U.S.—the time spent away can be life changing.
According to a study by the Association of American Colleges and Universities, 96 percent of employers agree that “all college students should have experiences that teach them how to solve problems with people whose views are different from their own.” Minnesota State University, Mankato has a vibrant study abroad program led by faculty and staff who believe in the transformative power of experience. The College of Business is no exception.
“It is important for our students to visualize themselves as active participants in the world and to make connections from their everyday to the global economy and culture.” Wade Davis, professor of Business Law
Alumni Connections in NYC
Davis launched his International Politics European tour last year. He worked with a study abroad travel company to customize a trip that would take students to London, Brussels, Amsterdam and The Hague. While there, they would get a crash course in how other countries structure their legal and political systems—and how those systems differ from those in the U.S.
Last January, Marketing professors Ann Kuzma and Kevin Elliott led students on a week-long, whirlwind tour of the Big Apple. Not only did they get to take in two Broadway shows, the students took a walking tour of Wall Street and visited companies like J.Crew. They also began to put together a vision for where their degree in Marketing may lead—thanks to a special connection facilitated by Kuzma and Elliott.
In addition to customizing the tour, Davis put in advance legwork to ensure students would get the most out of their 10 days abroad. Through a University grant, he was able to do a dry run of the tour. He traveled to each of the locations and connected with people at the International Court of Justice, the U.K. Supreme Court and the European Parliament. By going it alone, Davis was able to integrate the course itinerary and content to ensure that his students would get the most out of the experience.
“Not long after Dr. Elliott and I decided to take on the roles of faculty leaders for the New York City Study Tour, we found out that we had a Minnesota State Mankato alumnus who is currently working at a New York City advertising agency. His name is Ryan Phippen and he graduated from Minnesota State Mankato in 2003 with a Marketing major.”
For Davis, it came down to giving his students what he got through his years with the debate team: broadened horizons, a look at the big picture and an opportunity to travel and engage with the world.
Kuzma and Elliott reached out to Phippen—a senior vice president and account group supervisor at Havas Health and You—and asked if he’d be willing to host a student visit. He enthusiastically agreed, and on Jan. 4, met 15 students and their professors at the Madison Avenue offices of one of the largest global advertising and communications groups in the world. “When we arrived, we were ushered into a large conference room and given the VIP treatment with refreshments, memo pads and pens with the company logo, and then introduced to Ryan and several other agency executives,” says Kuzma. “Ryan started out the presentation by speaking about growing up in Minnesota and graduating from Minnesota State Mankato with a Marketing major. He then said to the group, ‘Seventeen years ago I was right where you are. I did the New York Study Tour in 2002.’ Hearing this made a huge impact on the students. Here in front of them was someone who had a similar background, had achieved his career goals and he was showing them what was possible. This was definitely one of the highlights of the trip.”
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Europe
“We live in a global economy and interdependent world,” he says. “Our farmers sell soybeans to China and Chile, our local companies manufacture products in Mexico and Asia, and many of our co-workers are from other countries. It is important for our students to visualize themselves as active participants in that world and to make connections from their everyday to the global economy and culture. The College of Business focuses on providing students opportunities to engage in real-world experiences and to put themselves out in the world. International travel is transformative—our study tour students will never see the world the same again.”
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Championing Fair Trade in Belize Kristin Scott led her first cohort of students on a FairTrade study abroad to Belize in 2013. With funding from the University, Scott developed a new class focused on trade, cultural competency and international commerce. Since then, she’s taken groups of four to eight students to Belize each year to dig into trade and commerce issues facing the Central American nation. Scott requires her students to read two books exploring food chains and production chains in Belize as well as history and culture in preparation for the trip. “We also take the intercultural development inventory, which measures intercultural competence,” she says. “That’s the ability to see similarities and differences in culture and adapt accordingly.” Students visit indigenous Mayans and see how chocolate is grown and begin to understand sustainable farming practices and fair wages. They also tour Maya Bags, a weaving company owned by women that is trying to market and sell Mayan-made products around the world. Students reap incalculable benefits from their intercultural experience, but Scott has also discovered a new field of research through her time in Belize. “Being a part of teaching this class actually got me involved with a group of researchers who were looking at poverty alleviation,” she says. “For part of that research, we had to conduct case studies, and I interviewed two companies that I came into contact with through the Belize trip.” The group has traveled to Nicaragua and Mexico to do similar work and research. Publication is forthcoming.
Building a Creative Toolkit in the Netherlands In June 2018, Yvonne Cariveau, director of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, was asked to visit the Arnhem Business School in the Netherlands to judge its annual ABS Talent Event. Cariveau and Dean Brenda Flannery judged the Marketing/Management team and were able to coach the winning team from that division. What stood out most from that experience, though, was when a team of students from four different countries presented a case study about Mankato’s power needs. “It was fascinating to hear what they knew and didn’t about the Midwest and our town,” says Cariveau. “It made me realize how easy it is to get key facts wrong if you’ve never been to a place.” Cariveau returned to Arnhem last summer to present a one-day lecture on entrepreneurship. Her travels have shown her just how valuable these experiences are for students and faculty alike. “Only by going to a place, talking to people, tasting food and shopping can you have an understanding of what life is like there,” she says. “Travel adds to a person’s toolkit of ideas about how to do things. Young people, when they travel, realize that there are multiple successful ways to solve problems and organize ventures.” After returning from her experience abroad, Cariveau began incorporating some of the design-thinking concepts she’d observed in the Netherlands into her own entrepreneurship class. She also wrote a grant to bring a design-thinking workshop to Mankato this winter. “Our students will have international interactions no matter where they work, and these types of learning opportunities help them to prepare for those and to have fuller lives,” she says. “Faculty also need these experiences to have a full toolkit of creative approaches and a flexibility of thinking that will help them to adapt to the quickly changing environment we all live in.”
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arilyn Fox wishes she could live four or five lifetimes. “Because you can’t possibly absorb all there is to know,” she says.
The professor of Management, MBA director, and director of AACSB Accreditation has been with the College of Business at Minnesota State University, Mankato for nearly 30 years. After 14 years in the corporate world, Fox was hired as a fixed-term faculty member. She took time off to complete her Ph.D. and returned to the University in 1990 on the tenure track. Over the years she’s worn many hats within the College of Business, including heading up AACSB accreditation, chairing the Department of Management and serving as interim dean twice.
“The best part of teaching is you always learn something yourself,” she says. “[As for] research I just love getting into the literature. It’s a time to really think about a lot of the things we do in companies and organizations and why we do them and how we can be managed better and how we can retain employees and treat them the way they should be treated. There’s a lot of really interesting literature out there and when you can make a small contribution to that, it’s very rewarding. You really feel like you’ve done something.” .................................................................................... We asked Fox to give us a window into who she is in and outside of the College of Business. Here’s what she said. ....................................................................................
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FACULTY LEADER:
If I wasn’t a professor, I would be: some sort of counselor or coach; a life coach and possibly athletic coach. My sport of choice was softball but I played volleyball, golf and tennis.
DR. MARILYN FOX But the thing she loves most about the job is the students. “Marilyn cares deeply about students,” says College of Business Dean Brenda Flannery. “Her training courses are among those with the highest student ratings because she has the students engage in real-world training simulations.” Fox is also a prolific researcher. She’s published nearly 40 academic papers and conducted the first study published in a management journal that measured the stress hormone cortisol through saliva rather than blood or urine. But it’s not the number she’s after. In research, as in teaching, she does it for the love of it.
In the summer I like to: be outside as much as possible. I putz in the yard, I read. Summer is a time for me to really catch up, if you will, on research. My favorite spot on campus is: the Hearth Lounge downstairs in the CSU. My most memorable interaction with a student was when: an HR management student who was graduating came in and brought me flowers and said they hoped I kept going. They wanted to get me something but didn’t know what [to bring] and said, “I’m only giving you flowers, but you gave me a lifetime of knowledge and friendship.” There was a tear.
One thing people might not know about me is that: Tina Dickel and I have owned four Giant Schnauzers, and three of them received their championship titles in confirmation. Libby (Tanglewood’s Black Magic Woman) won an award at the prestigious Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York. Of course, I am biased, but it was due to Tina’s amazing grooming and handling that our dogs won as much as they did.
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Be a Business Analytics Translator The College of Business’ new Business Analytics Certificate gives students valuable insight into analytical decision making.
Those people are analytics translators. “When I say translator, I’m talking about someone who is versatile,” says Joe Reising, associate professor of Finance at Minnesota State University, Mankato. “They need to have two separate skillsets. They have to have the business skillset, but they also need to understand analytics.” Reising tapped into the national conversation about analytics translators in 2014, about the time the McKinsey report dropped. He developed a business analytics course to give students an introduction to the rapidly growing field, which has expanded into a recently approved Certificate in Business Analytics.
CERTIFICATE IN BUSINESS ANALYTICS The Certificate in Business Analytics is offered through Minnesota State Mankato’s College of Business and is open to current students and professionals. The 17-credit program gives participants tools to better analyze and support data-driven business decisions.
“Business schools have long taught analytics, but it hasn’t always been done systematically,” says Reising. “Analytics has been taught in finance, accounting, management, marketing and other business areas, but often programs don’t necessarily connect the dots across the different topics being taught to really help people understand analytics as a methodology.” The certificate will equip business students to enter the workforce as valuable analytics translators who can act as conduits between data analysts and managers. They can see a problem, says Reising, understand how data could help solve it and translate those needs to data analysts. Then, they can take the solution back to the corner office and indicate the value of the data-based solution. “They can bridge the two areas and make sure business people who don’t know analytics understand what the answer is,” he says.
BUSINESS
“Simply collecting big data does not unleash its potential value,” reads a 2014 McKinsey report. “People must do that, especially people who understand how analytics can resolve business issues or capture opportunities.”
The clear business school choice for real-world learning ACADEMIC PROGRAMS
R E A L- W O R L D E X P E R I E N C E S
Accounting
Student Organizations
• • • •
Master of Accounting (MAcc) Certificate in Taxation Bachelor of Science in Accounting Minor in Accounting
• More than 13 to choose from
United Prairie Bank Integrated Business Experience Big Ideas Challenge
Analytics
• Certificate in Business Analytics
Bachelor of Business Administration • Fully Online Degree Completion Program
Business Administration
• Master of Business Administration (MBA) • Minor in Business Administration
Business Law
• Minor in Entrepreneurship & Innovation • Minor in Agribusiness & Food Innovation
Finance • • • •
Bachelor of Science in Finance Certificate in Business Analytics Certificate in Financial Planning Minor in Financial Planning
International Business
• Bachelor of Science in International Business • Minor in International Business
VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) Study Away Opportunities
• New York Study Tour • Belize Fair Trade Study Abroad • The European Experience
Maverick Student Investment Fund Diversity Case Competition
• Minor in Business Law
Entrepreneurship & Innovation
College of
T
he sheer amount of data companies can access is mind boggling. From insights into customer behavior to manufacturing processes to employee productivity, it’s all there. But what good is it if you can’t use it to bolster the bottom line?
Richard and Mary Schmitz Food Entrepreneur Lecture Series Daryl and Karyl Henze Student Ag Innovators Program Meet the Firms Event Global Entrepreneurship Week Stangler Internship Program Wall Street Journal Program
Management • • • •
Bachelor of Science in Management Minor in Human Resources Emphasis in Human Resources Emphasis in Business Management
Marketing
• Bachelor of Science in Marketing • Minor in Marketing
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“The most important attitude that can be formed is that of desire to go on learning.” — JOHN DEW EY, EX PER IENC E A N D EDUCAT ION
Minnesota State University, Mankato’s Memorial Library sits in the heart of campus and contains more than 1.3 million volumes, 68,000 print and electronic periodicals and 350 electronic databases.
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NON-PROFIT ORGN. U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
PERMIT NO. 202 MANKATO, MN 56001
Minnesota State University, Mankato College of Business 120 Morris Hall Mankato, MN 56001
Daryl and Karyl Henze are longtime supporters of the College of Business. Daryl, a 1965 graduate with a degree in accounting, went on to enjoy a successful career with KPMG. He has served on both the Alumni Board and the Foundation Board for Minnesota State University, GIFTS THAT Mankato. MAKE A
DIFFERENCE
As a scholarship recipient himself, it was important for Daryl to give back. He and Karyl support accounting students through the Daryl and Karyl Henze Endowed Accounting Scholarship and have helped fund the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The Henze’s latest gift to the university lends support to the AgriBusiness & Food Innovation Initiative through the Daryl and Karyl Henze Student Ag Innovators Program.
Please consider making a difference through your own financial gift. Take a moment to look at the giving envelope inside this issue of In Review or contact Dustin Sedars at 507-389-2578 or dustin.sedars@mnsu.edu.
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