Perspectives Summer 2016

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS

Perspectives U N I V E R S I T Y O F I L L I N O I S AT U R B A N A- C H A MPA I G N

ENVISIONING A BRIGHT FUTURE

SUMMER 2016

LEADING THE WAY IN BUSINESS EDUCATION

“We envision a bright

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t’s been fortuitous that my first year as dean of the College has coincided with the final year of our Centennial celebration. That timing has provided an opportunity for me to talk with thousands of

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS

[ CONTENTS ]

students, faculty, and alumni and to reflect on how those conversations can help us envision a second century that is even brighter than our first.

will be seen as the school for business education.”

Our ambitious plan begins with innovative initiatives that set the standard for an exceptional business education. You’ll see examples of several of them in this issue of Perspectives. For instance, our collaboration with the Institute for Genomic Biology is providing business students with a broader understanding of genomic science as a way to help solve broad societal problems and create new business opportunities. Our joint efforts with the College of Engineering are providing support for the growth of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the Midwest. The College’s iMBA program, an innovative and exceptional online delivery option, is earning praise from students and building our global reputation

[ MY ] PERSPECTIVE

as a leader in technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

The enterprising men and women of the College continue to enhance that reputation through scholarship, collaboration, and idea generation. We look to increase those efforts by expanding our faculty, adding the highest-caliber new hires to our already exceptional professoriate. We continue to implement programming and curriculum innovations that set us apart. We are putting all of our resources to work to ensure an exceptional student experience. In short, we envision a bright future where our College will be seen as the school for business education.

You play an integral role in building that bright future by being ambassadors and advocates for the College. Your financial support is important, too, as we pursue this vision in a highly competitive market with little public funding.

I’ve found in this first year as dean that we have passionate, loyal alumni who share our vision for the College. Your generosity in terms of time, talent, and resources will turn that vision into reality.

Leading that effort is a privilege!

Perspectives 2

Envisioning a Bright Future

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The Cutting Edge

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Our Alma Mater might not be able to “see” the future, but she does “reflect” the aspirations and dreams of our students, faculty, and alumni. With those aspirations, a strong strategic vision, and the support of our stakeholders, we in the College of Business have set our sights on becoming one of the great 21st-century business schools.

COnTRIBUTInG WRITERS Tom Hanlon Celeste Huttes Dave Kuhl Cathy Lockman

We welcome your perspective, too. Send your comments or suggestions for future articles to our managing editor, Mary Kay Dailey, at mkdailey@illinois.edu.

PROOFREADER Anne McKinney

www.business.illinois.edu

Grand Slam What are the realities of a career in sports and business?

Harms’ Way How a father and son became students in the first iMBA

Creative Thinking Alumni share how they employ creativity to help their

Climate of Concern What does climate change mean for Illinois?

SHORT TAKES

DESIGnER Pat Mayer

Perspectives has been named a Circle of Excellence Bronze Award winner by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and an Award of Excellence winner by the University & College Designers Association.

The Hoeft Technology & Management program has

cohort.

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PHOTOGRAPHERS Tricia Koning Thompson • McClellan Photography

ON THE COVER

Pioneering Minor Yields Major Value

businesses thrive.

EDITOR Cathy Lockman

Josef and Margot Lakonishok Professor of Business and Dean

Imagine the possibilities when business and science team up.

A student-initiated conference provides answers.

MAnAGInG EDITOR Mary Kay Dailey

Jeffrey R. Brown

Our plans for becoming a Top-5 College of Business.

been building bridges for 20 years.

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DEAn Jeffrey R. Brown

SUMMER 2016

future where our College

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Taking Our Qs

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The Main Event

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60-Second Profile

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Words from the Ys

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The Reason Why

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Parting Shot

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is an equal opportunity, affirmative action institution.

Printed on recycled paper with soybean ink.

[COvER STORY]

Envisioning a Bright Future

The College of Business has high aspirations to be the school of choice for business education. We are pursuing this vision in a highly competitive market and with almost no public funding.

We have a plan to achieve our high aspirations—and you are part of that plan.

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hen Jeffrey Brown became the tenth Dean of the College of Business in August 2015, the last thing he expected was that he would spend his entire first year operating without a state budget.

The good news, at least for the College of Business, is that the College receives no taxpayer funding, and hasn’t for many years (other than what the state contributes to faculty health and retirement plans).

That lack of reliance is deliberate.

Brown, the Josef and Margot Lakonishok Professor of Business and Dean, notes that decades back, the state provided the lion’s share of the budget. But the College recognized long ago that state funding was dwindling and would continue to diminish and thus decided to change its financial model.

“The simplest way I can describe our situation is that we must manage our finances like a private institution while maintaining true to our public, land-grant mission,” says Brown. “This requires wise steward-

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“There’s no guarantee that ten years from now the business schools you see operating now are going to be operating. If you’re not out in front, where we intend to be, then you’re looking at potentially dying.”

Jon Davis ship of resources, strategically investing in innovative new programs, and building strong relations with our alumni and corporate partners.”

SETTiNG OuR SiGHTS The lack of taxpayer support, says Jon Davis, impacts how the College does business. “I feel like I am working with a team to run a notfor-profit that has to stand on its own,” says Davis, professor of accountancy, department head, and R.C. Evans Endowed Chair in Business. “We’re focused on where our resources are coming from, and that affects the decisions we make.”

Sources of revenue for the College of Business include tuition,

corporate support, and private philanthropy. Raising tuition is not a sustainable strategy. “Families have been paying more in tuition.

Nationally, we’ve over-tapped that resource,” Davis says.

He explains that the College is in a very competitive market. “It’s very much like private industry,” he says.

“There’s no guarantee that ten years from now the business schools you see operating now are going to be operating. If you’re not out in front, where we intend to be, then you’re looking at potentially dying.”

So what is a College to do? How can it continue to operate at a time when, as Clayton Christensen, a highly respected Harvard Business

School professor, says, more than half the universities in America will be bankrupt in 15 years? How can a College thrive in the next five years when, as Richard Lyons, dean of the business school at UC Berkeley, predicts, half of all the 1,600 accredited business schools in the nation will not even be around by 2020?

You invest in excellence, and you innovate, says Mauricio Gonzalez, the College’s new associate dean for advancement.

“We have a clear strategic priority of being among the top business schools, public or private, in the country,” Gonzalez says. “To get there, we need more professors. Faculty are the lifeblood of our College.

With more faculty, we can better serve our students, increase our course offerings, and increase the impact of our scholarship. All of that requires resources.”

There are two opportunities to gain resources. The first is from strategic investment in innovative new programs, especially at the graduate level. This includes our online iMBA, the first of its kind. The second, Gonzalez says, is from alumni, friends of the College, and corporate partners. College of Business alumni—60,000 strong—represent the largest potential source of revenue.

“The need for financial support from alumni is greater now than it

“It’s going to take resources to [be one of the great business schools in the world], and we know the resources are not going to come from the state. So we’re generating them ourselves, and we’re asking for our alumni and corporations to partner with us to achieve our vision.”

Jeffrey Brown

College of Business I University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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ever has been,” Gonzalez says. “We do not receive state funds to support our operations, and the competition for top professors is growing. There are a lot of business schools going after the best professors.”

BRiGHT STaRS Mark Peecher, associate dean of faculty and Deloitte Professor of Accountancy, speaks of a “tipping point” in terms of faculty.

“Attracting and retaining top faculty is the key to success,” he says.

“When you’re able to retain a star faculty member, then Illinois will be on the radar when new PhDs from Stanford, Harvard, or MIT are looking for jobs. They want to come here as an assistant professor, be mentored by that star faculty member, and teach our students. Retaining key faculty helps recruit future stars.

Yet, our competition opportunisti-

cally looks at our state’s financial situation and targets our most promising faculty. If you lose one of your most respected faculty members, the dominoes can fall fairly quickly. I’m not trying to be Chicken Little here, but we need to avoid brain drain. Illinois is not so big that we can sustain no matter what.”

The College needs to retain its top faculty, and “Dean Brown has a goal of increasing the size of the faculty by up to 30 professors over the next decade,” says Gonzalez. Preserving and expanding faculty requires additional financial resources.

“We need to double our endowment, which is about $100 million now, and we need to move our annual giving up from $6 million to $15 million,” he says. According to Gonzalez, the College’s endowment is about half the size of Wisconsin’s and roughly comparable to the busi-

“The financial support provided by our alumni and donors is critical to our ability to provide our students with an unmatched experience and to become a Top-5 undergraduate business program.”

W. Brooke Elliott ness schools at Purdue and Indiana—“But if you add those two schools together, which is appropriate because they represent the state of Indiana, they would be almost doubling us again,” Gonzalez points out. Michigan’s endowment, he adds, is about four times the size of Illinois’.

“It’s important that we significantly grow the endowment for the College of Business because it is critical to our long-term financial security,” Gonzalez says.

BEliEVE OuR “i’S

“The business world doesn’t want just honest people or just competent people; it wants both.

And that’s what we’re building in our students.”

Mark Peecher

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That financial security is especially important as the College executes on its strategic priorities.

“Our plans include being universally recognized as having a Top-5 undergraduate program and being known worldwide as the place to study and practice technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship,” says Brown. “Growing our faculty is an essential element of achieving our

ambitious goals. We have three investment initiatives that support these goals. All three, appropriately, begin with the letter ‘I.’” The first “I,” Brown says, is the College’s Inclusion initiative—investing in a diverse faculty and in a diverse student body by attracting more qualified students from underrepresented groups and economically disadvantaged families. “The most important tool for achieving this goal is to raise significant scholarship money and to partner with organizations to get kids collegeready,” he says.

The second “I” is Innovation.

“That includes technology, innovation, entrepreneurship, data analytics, our entrepreneurship academies, our iVenture Accelerator, our collaborations with the College of Engineering; all of that fits under this innovation umbrella,” Brown says.

The final “I” is Integrity, modeled around the College’s Center for Professional Responsibility in Business

and Society. Currently, all first-year business students complete the Business 101 course.

“Business 101 focuses on ethics and integrity, but also on the broader concept of professional responsibilities,” says Peecher, who also serves as academic director for the Center for Professional Responsibility. “A lot of people think about professional responsibilities as having an ethical mindset, an ethical decision-making framework. And that’s true, you do need to be honest and have integrity. But the first step in being a professionally responsible decision maker is to have confidence in your domain of expertise. You have to understand the industry you’re in and how the business world operates within that sphere. The business world doesn’t want just honest people or just competent people; it wants both.

And that’s what we’re building in our students.”

It’s one reason why the College plans to expand the Business 101 model throughout an undergraduate student’s four years at Illinois.

world. They arrive at Illinois expecting to receive an unmatched curricular and overall student experience.

As a college, we strive to develop innovative courses and deliver these courses in innovative ways.”

That means employing new teaching methods, beyond the traditional lecture and textbook approach, and providing experiential learning opportunities.

“We are in the process of developing a set of common experience courses for our students that will deliver critical knowledge and skills in an action-based learning environment,” says Elliott. “Employers crave a graduate that not only has the requisite content knowledge and skills, but has also experienced the application of this knowledge and skill set in an uncertain business environment. Through simulations and live-

client projects, we deliver this experience to our students and, by extension, to their employers.”

Building these real-world, relevant experiences for the College’s undergraduates takes creativity. “We are limited not in our desires or efforts, but in the resources available to deliver what our students deserve,” says Elliott. “The financial support provided by our alumni and donors is critical to our ability to provide our students with an unmatched student experience and to become a Top-5 undergraduate business program.”

aCHiEVaBlE ViSiON Brown says it is those themes— Inclusion, Innovation, and Integrity—that will help the College achieve its vision of being one of the great business schools in the world.

SuCCESS iN SiGHT Innovation is at the heart of enhancing the undergraduate experience, says W. Brooke Elliott, professor of accountancy and academic director of undergraduate affairs. “We attract some of the best undergraduate students in the

“We want to generate the resources for [scholarships, faculty hiring and support, and program development] so our College’s future is even brighter than our first 100 years.”

“It’s going to take resources to do it, and we know the resources are not going to come from the state. So we’re generating them ourselves, and we’re asking for our alumni and corporations to partner with us to achieve our vision,” he says.

“Our alumni play a tremendously important role in our future,” adds Gonzalez, mentioning the three T’s—Time, Talents, and Treasure—as general areas of giving back.

“In addition, we want to engage corporate partners much more than we have in the past. We are a supply chain for their future workforce. We want to partner with them, and with our alumni who work for them, to ensure that we are producing the business leaders of the 21st century.”

Scholarships, faculty hiring and support, and program development: those are what Gonzalez terms the three “big planks” the College needs to have solidly in place. “We want to generate the resources for these areas so our College’s future is even brighter than our first 100 years,” he says.

“An alumnus came up to me recently and said, ‘I want the College of Business to be the school of choice for any senior in high school who wants to pursue a business education,” Brown says.

“That’s what this is about. We can achieve that vision, but we have to invest to do it.”

Tom Hanlon

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Maurici0 Gonzalez

College of Business I University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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[TECHnOLOGY]

The Cutting Edge BUSINESS AND SCIENCE “PARTNER UP”

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magine a world where medical risks can be predicted for individuals, where drought-resistant crops can be produced, where missing or damaged body tissue can be regenerated.

Actually, you’re living in that world right now, courtesy of the science of genomics. And nearly 30 University of Illinois students, primarily MBA students, are examining the intersection of business and genomics, thanks to a partnership between the College of Business and the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB).

The two entities collaborated to create an innovative and integrative eight-week course called “Business Applications of Genomics: Understanding the Business of Technology,” which exposes students to genomic technologies, agriculture genomics, biofuels and energy genomics, genomics and drug discovery, regenerative biology, consumer genomics, and regulating genomic products.

The course is the brainchild of Gene Robinson, the director of IGB and Swanlund Chair of Entomology.

He approached the College with the idea, which was enthusiastically embraced by then-Dean Larry DeBrock and Raj Echambadi, senior associate dean of MBA programs & strategic innovation.

“Problems in society are not ‘scientific problems’ or ‘business problems’,” Echambadi says. “They are intertwined, and business has

“This is true integration where we have students interacting with the scientists who are on the cutting edge.”

iDEal PaRTNERSHiP

Raj Echambadi

a role to play in climate change, in resource scarcity, in healthcare and personalized medicine, and so on.” To play that role, Echambadi adds, business students need a broader understanding of the science involved. “This is true integration where we have students interacting with the scientists who are on the cutting edge.”

“CHaNGiNG liFE aS WE KNOW iT” What exactly is genomics?

Simply put, it’s a new science, rooted in molecular biology, but

‘Genomics 2.0,’ which is going to change life as we know it with respect to personalized medicine.” And around those changes, he notes, new companies—such as 23andMe—have sprung up to offer people the opportunity to map their own genomes.

You give the company a sample of your saliva, and it gives you detailed genetic reports that tell you what your DNA says about your health, your traits, and your ancestry.

“From a broader College perspective, if we can send out students who are capable of analyzing complex problems in an integrated manner for the benefit of consumer welfare and can promote economic development, it’s going to be fantastic,” Echambadi says.

concerned with the structure, function, evolution, and mapping of whole genomes, rather than individual genes. A genome is the entire DNA content present within one cell of an organism. The potential applications of genomics are virtually endless, and business students who understand that potential and see possible applications will be, as Echambadi says, at the vanguard of what is going to be an incredibly exciting space.

“Genomics has gone through multiple waves,” Echambadi explains. “We are now expecting

The partnership between the College of Business and IGB is ideally suited on both sides. The College wants to expose its students to business opportunities in the science, and IGB, whose motto is “Where science meets society,” can educate business students who will then literally help genomics solve the broader challenges society faces.

“Genomics is a young science, and it is moving extremely rapidly in many different directions that are impacting and will impact many different sectors of our economy and society,” says Robinson. “We have an opportunity as well as an obligation to engage the public in

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“As DNA sequencing gets cheaper, it becomes a commodity. Using computing as a model, when something becomes cheap enough to become a commodity, smart people end up doing all sorts of creative things with it.”

Gene Robinson

SNaPSHOTS OF ClaSS PROjECTS

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n the six projects undertaken by student teams in the Business Applications of Genomics class, students:

• Examined using genomic technology to develop allergen-free peanut seeds that can be licensed to seed companies.

• Investigated producing venom in labs to create anti-venom solutions for medical and scientific uses.

• Explored fecal genomic diagnostics to develop more comfortable and economic alternatives to traditional colonoscopies.

• Used genomic mapping to provide targeted sports-related recommendations to parents of young children to ensure the best-fitting sport to the children’s traits.

• Highlighted potential problems through genomic mapping to provide proactive recommendations for living healthier lives.

• Used genomic technology to develop seeds that enable farmers to simplify the fertilization process.

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the various ways in which the new science of genomics is going to be transforming and revolutionizing various areas of society.”

One of the fastest-growing areas in genomics is in the consumer space, Robinson adds—which puts the science squarely on the radar screen for business students.

“These are really bright MBA students,” Robinson says. “We don’t expect them to become biologists by any means, but we expect them to gain a working knowledge of the cutting edge of genomics, to be able to understand how genomics works, what a genome is, what the science is aiming to do, and how it can be applied to so many different areas in medicine, in agriculture, in science.

By using that as a foundation, it will allow them to develop creative ideas themselves about what some possible applications could be going forward.”

uNliMiTED BuSiNESS aPPliCaTiONS The business applications of genomics are limited only by the imagination. Current applications range from the serious (detecting health risks, defining the severity of one’s cancer) to the sanctimonious (one gated community requires all residents’ dogs to be genetically tagged so doggie doo-doo left on a sidewalk can be identified).

While identifying dog droppings would not be listed among the grand challenges of our time, it does illus-

trate that genomics can be used for any business venture that requires DNA identification.

“The cost of DNA sequencing is dropping,” Robinson says. “As it gets cheaper and cheaper, individuals with business knowledge and a basic understanding of the science will be well-positioned to create new opportunities.”

WiN-WiN “SiGNaTuRE COuRSE” FOR COllEGE

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a DEEPER iNTERDiSCiPliNaRY EXPERiENCE Madhu Viswanathan, professor of business administration and Diane & Steven N. Miller Centennial Chair, is seen by Echambadi as the glue of the course because of Viswanathan’s decade of experience with interdisciplinary classes.

“I’ve been doing an interdisciplinary class with engineering students,” he says. But to truly benefit from an interdisciplinary experience, he notes, “you can’t just have an engineering student take a business course or two and a business student take an engineering course or two. We are going much deeper here. The deeper you go into an arena such as genomics, the broader you can take that learning across different technologies. It’s an experience the students can apply to any industry they go into.”

aDDRESSiNG SOCiETY’S GRaND CHallENGES For the inaugural course, offered this spring, faculty from a variety of departments who are part of the IGB

“The deeper you go into an arena such as genomics, the broader you can take that learning across different technologies.”

Madhu Viswanathan taught the first half of each class and then Viswanathan led discussions that opened up the ideas of business opportunities based on what the students learned during the lectures.

Student teams designed a product, developed a marketing plan, presented the plan and a written report, and were assessed by peers (see “Snapshots of Class Projects”). The class culminated in May with a oneday “Code-a-thon,” where each team was given an idea and had 24 hours to develop a business plan for it.

“The students had to learn to accept ambiguity and embrace risk,”

Viswanathan says. “They learned to create models that examine complex problems.”

And that, says Robinson, is what it’s ultimately all about: “Genomics addresses major problems, societal grand challenges in health, energy, the environment, food security. And as DNA sequencing gets cheaper, it becomes a commodity. Using computing as a model, when something becomes cheap enough to become a commodity, smart people end up doing all sorts of creative things with it.”

Tom Hanlon

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t’s believed that Business Applications for Genomics is the first such course in the country for MBA students.

“This is a classic win-win,” says Gene Robinson. “IGB is a leading genomics institute in the country, and we want it to be the place people from many professions and parts of society look to for information on how this new science is going to be impacting them, and by teaming up with a leading college of business, we are extending our reach and our audience considerably.

“The College, for its part, has the aspiration to be the leading technology business school in the country, and by pairing up with a leading genomics institute, they are able to take a giant step forward in that quest.”

Raj Echambadi agrees. “This signature course demonstrates and showcases our quality and our breadth. I view the business school as a connective tissue across campus. For us to be viable in the long run, we need to address the grand challenges of our time as a business school, and we need to integrate ourselves into the fabric of the university.”

Madhu Viswanathan tackles one of those grand challenges in his work with subsistence marketplaces. He sees future applications for integrating genomics content in the courses he teaches on that subject.

“Genomics is a nascent technology on the verge of fueling largescale innovations,” he explains. “Our decade-long experience has been about taking a bottom-up approach to understanding subsistence marketplaces and blending it with top-down approaches from organizational and technological perspectives. By working in contexts of poverty with high uncertainty and resource constraints, students learn to understand marketplaces and design solutions and business plans in extremely challenging settings. Working on genomics in subsistence marketplaces represents the highest levels of uncertainty on a variety of dimensions—in terms of the technology, the ecosystem, and the marketplace—truly a challenge worth exploring for our students’ development. A team consisting of students in business, design, IGB, and bioengineering would be ideally suited to take on this challenge and to conduct projects in a variety of sectors, including health and agriculture.”

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College of Business I University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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[ MAKInG HISTORY ]

Pioneering Minor Yields Major Value

T&M alumni are invited to an event marking the program’s first 20 years. The celebration will be held on August 19 from 6 pm to 9 pm at The Berghoff in Chicago. To register, visit go.business.illinois.edu/20YEARSTM.

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or 20 years, The Hoeft Technology & Management (T&M) Program has been in the business of building bridges— bridges that cross disciplines, connect industry and academia, and often lead students to their future employers.

The elite program, offering an undergraduate minor, brings together the best and brightest engineering and business majors to learn together.

With the graduation of Class XX in May 2016, more than 770 T&M graduates are now making their mark on the world.

a ViSiONaRY PROGRaM The unprecedented T&M Program sprouted in 1995 from corporate gifts and $1 million in seed money from Leonard ’47 and Mary Lou Hoeft, who followed that up with millions more.

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“Leonard was an amazing man —very generous and humble, ahead of his time,” says John Clarke, director of the T&M Program from 2004 to 2008. “He thought his own background in engineering and business gave him an advantage in his career and was something that should be replicated.”

The program’s structure employs that interdisciplinary focus as well. Steve Michael, professor of business administration, and Deborah Thurston, professor of industrial and enterprise systems engineering, have served as academic co-directors since 2004, and Michael has taught the innovation course in the program since 2000. John Quarton is the T&M program director, a position he has held since 2013. It’s Quarton’s second affiliation with T&M. He served as the primary corporate representative from State Farm for five years while working at the State

Farm Research & Development Center in the University of Illinois Research Park.

This collaboration of the disciplines is important in both concrete and symbolic ways, says Janet Eakman, assistant director of the program from 2003 to 2005. “We wanted business students to cross Green Street to go to the Engineering building, and we wanted engineering students to cross Green Street to get to Wohlers Hall,” she says. “We wanted them to step over into each other’s worlds.”

Bridging those two worlds is the hallmark of the T&M Program, which remains anchored in its mission “to prepare engineering and business graduates to function effectively in a technical, interdisciplinary, team-based industry environment.”

It was a groundbreaking concept from the beginning.

“In 1995, T&M was truly the first of its type,” says Darcy Sementi, program director from 2008 to 2013 and currently assistant dean of honors and experiential programs. She notes that Georgia Tech and the University of Maryland have since modeled programs after it.

“Many have tried to replicate T&M, but to this day the innovative nature of the program is without equal,” says Clarke.

WaNTED: BEST & BRiGHTEST Much like the business world, “the T&M program is extremely competitive,” says Quarton. “Only one of every four to five students who apply is accepted.”

The program aims to admit roughly equal numbers of business and engineering students. Female and minority students are well represented in the program, which also draws a large number of interna-

“Overall, T&M has taught me to dream big—the diversity and depth of accomplishments and experiences that my class and alumni had achieved proves that any goal is possible with the right network and perspective. This network led me to LinkedIn for my first job out of college, and the network has assisted me with funding and other projects for MakerGirl, a non-profit

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I co-founded.

Elizabeth Engele, Class XIX tional student applicants—and a surprising number of siblings. All share a common interest.

“The T&M program attracts students who want to see where technology and business intersect,” says Quarton. “You can’t sustain a business if you’re not actively embracing technology.”

The average T&M student holds a 3.7 GPA when applying for the program during their sophomore year—but smarts won’t guarantee a position in the program.

“We’re not just looking for students who are academically strong, we also look for current and highpotential leaders,” says Quarton.

“T&M students are a select group—and most tend to be very humble.”

They also tend to be very attractive to employers, typically landing highly selective jobs in industry or consulting. Many students enter high-tech businesses, Silicon Valley enterprises, while others pursue graduate or professional degrees.

In a global economy, it’s never been more important for graduates to be able to hit the ground running (or, “sprinting,” as Quarton says

of T&M graduates) with crossfunctional skills.

“The diversity of thought offered in the T&M program helps prepare students for the real world—because in the real world you don’t sit and work with people just like you,” says Sementi.

iNNOVaTiVE CuRRiCuluM Along with the standard requirements for their respective business or engineering degrees, students must complete a rigorous 22-hour T&M curriculum.

The two-year program emphasizes technology, innovation, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Crossfunctional collaboration is the thread that runs throughout.

“Collaboration really is the heartbeat of the working world, and our engineering and business students are better prepared for that world

through their collaborations as part of the T&M program,” says Jeffrey Brown, Josef and Margot Lakonishok Professor of Business and Dean of the College of Business.

T&M’s seven-class curriculum divides into two parts. Three courses introduce business students to basic engineering topics such as materials, mechanics, and circuits.

In a parallel three-course path, engineering students learn about new product marketing, accounting, and finance.

At the same time, the students from both colleges come together to learn about innovation and technology management, new product development, and business process modeling. In their final semester, an integrated capstone project challenges students to solve a real-world problem for one of the program’s corporate affiliates.

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Learning through the lens of another discipline often proves to be an eye-opening experience.

“Engineering students often learn from business students how to see the big picture and gain a better understanding of interrelationships,” says Thurston. “Business students learn from engineering students more of a mindset that there really is an optimal way to do things.”

Working together allows students to balance the black-and-white perspective of engineering with the shades of gray that color the business world.

“Business students learn that there are moments when getting it right matters, no matter what,” says Michael. “There’s a difference between a good idea and good business —if you have both, there’s nothing that can stop you.”

In the end, this multidisciplinary approach leads to a whole greater than its parts.

“Each come up with different sets of concerns, challenges, solutions—and both perspectives are important,” says Sementi, “In the end, the students come up with better solutions.”

T&M GOES GlOBal Beyond the rigorous classroom curriculum, the T&M program includes a 12-day business trip that immerses students in the art of international business.

International travel was at the top of Clarke’s agenda when he came on board as director in 2004.

“We live in a globally competitive world,” he says. “It’s important that

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students have a true appreciation for what globalization means and how to navigate the world as an effective global citizen. The international experience helps them understand how their discipline fits in the world.”

The trips—to China, India, and other destinations over the years— are designed to simulate a business trip. That means students must embrace proper business attire, etiquette, assignments, and accountability while navigating a morning-through-evening schedule. One class met with 83 executives in China in one week.

“Learning to be comfortable with being uncomfortable is built into the trip,” notes Clarke.

Along with confidence, that hard-core business trip develops critical soft skills.

“By the time they graduate, these students have traveled internationally. They understand how to carry on a business conversation at dinner and put forth a professional perspective in a multicultural setting,” says Chris Kutsor ’95 FIN, director of investor relations at Motorola Solutions, who has served on the T&M Advisory Board since 2004. “You can’t teach that or read a paper about it—you can’t replicate the power of experience.”

iNDuSTRY CONNECTiON The T&M Program maintains a constant connection to the business world through its corporate affiliates program.

Along with critical financial support, corporate affiliates provide strategic advice and guidance on the

“The T&M program gave me the academic experience, crossfunctional teamwork experience, and confidence to branch outside of programming and engineering very early in my career. Within four years of graduation, I was utilizing my engineering, business, and cross-functional skills to manage and grow a team of 20+ at an Internet company growing at

”

triple-digit rates.

Tim Ho, Class v curriculum. They also participate in extracurricular activities and sponsor capstone projects. The threeyear affiliation can be renewed at the end of the third year by mutual agreement.

“Affiliates don’t just give money —we give time,” says Kutsor. “As curriculum is developed, we provide a real-world perspective as to what corporations seek in new talent. Additionally, we bring T&M students to our corporate offices for meaningful engagements with executives that include case studies, panel discussions, and networking. These events are intended to benefit the students with hands-on business experience while also helping build a relationship that could benefit the hiring process. It’s a privilege to be a corporate affiliate.”

Eakman played a key role in establishing the innovative corporate affiliates program. She knew students would benefit but was delighted at the unexpected dynamics she saw at the board level.

“These high-level executives trusted each other so much and were amazingly open. They were thinking outside the box and bouncing ideas off each other,” she says. “It was exciting to see how they learned from each other, too.”

The benefits of the corporate affiliate program run both ways. Students gain real-world experience and build valuable networks. Meanwhile, the corporate affiliates gain access to a pool of top-notch talent.

“As a corporate affiliate, we hope T&M students get to know Motorola Solutions better than our competitors and will want to come and work for us,” says Kutsor. “Corporate affiliates also have access to a broader pipeline of university resources and faculty.”

“ The China trip enabled us not only to see another culture, but also to see culture as it applies to business while visiting our Corporate Sponsors. This exposure provided me with a global mindset

CaPPiNG iT OFF Corporate affiliates also benefit from the senior capstone project, where multidisciplinary teams of T&M students tackle real-world problems posed by an affiliate.

“The capstone project is a significant, legitimate consulting engagement over several months where students work on a problem we give them,” says Kutsor, who sponsored a project where students helped Motorola Solutions identify opportunities to dive deeper into the wearable camera market for police officers.

“The project was insightful and provided significant value in balancing trade-offs in our new product introduction,” says Kutsor.

Those intensive capstone projects often save corporate affiliates untold dollars in process improve-

”

early in my career.

Jennifer Lee, Class XX ments—not to mention money that might otherwise have been spent on external consultants.

For example, one capstone team saved Boeing hundreds of thousands of dollars—and improved the fuel efficiency of its next-generation 787 airplane—by developing a comprehensive model to identify the most cost-effective paint measurement solution.

As Thurston says, “Nothing spurs innovation like a problem.”

In a full-circle moment, a 2006 capstone project for State Farm— which conceived of a café where young people could chat with State Farm financial coaches in a low-key

setting—was touted in a textbook used in the T&M business process modeling class in 2016. That’s because the idea conceived by T&M Class X became a reality in 2011 when State Farm opened up just such a café—called Next Door—in Chicago.

“I’m proud of all the capstone projects,” says Michael. “We’ve made our mark on Boeing’s 787; we’ve also made our mark on the trading desk at BP and the testing routines used at Abbott, just to name a few.”

Michael recounts a story where an executive at one corporate affiliate explained a successful capstone project to a company colleague.

Impressed, but slightly confused, the co-worker reportedly said, “Oh, Capstone! We’re going to have to hire that consulting firm!”

And hire they do.

Corporate affiliates know all too well that T&M graduates have proven their mettle.

“T&M is a novel way to tap top talent. These students have world-

class GPAs and leadership profiles before they even get into T&M,” says Kutsor. “The program is unbelievably rigorous—it’s a great filter for the kind of go-getter we’re looking for.”

BRiDGES NOT SilOS While it has clearly inspired other universities, the T&M program provides a powerful model within Illinois as well—a call to replace silos with bridges.

“T&M is the only such joint venture on campus. Most other academic programs are designed to go deep in discipline,” says Michael.

“Yet, all interesting problems are interdisciplinary.”

Andreas Cangellaris, dean of the College of Engineering, echoes that observation.

“Cooperation, collaboration, and communication across disciplines and cultures are critical aspects of leadership that our students must master to prepare them to have an impact on society and the world,” he says.

While the T&M program continues to evolve, one thing is not likely to change: the enthusiasm it evokes in all it touches.

“Even 10 years out, alumni speak very passionately about their cohort,” says Clarke.

Faculty feel it, too.

“This has been the defining experience of my professional life,” says Michael. “I consider myself blessed beyond words to be part of the education and lives of so many talented students and so many good friends.”

Along with friends, the program has brought Thurston enthusiasm for what lies ahead.

“The world is getting more internationally competitive—we need these students,” she says. “They are so bright and so hard working—truly engaged in what they are doing.

They give me hope for our future.” • Celeste Huttes

College of Business I University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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[LEADERSHIP]

Q

TAKING OUR Qs

Name: Julie Scott ’85 ACCY, cum laude Current position: President, CEO, and founder of CTS Holdings, Inc., a hands-on business advisory and project management firm focused on business integration in the areas of finance and accounting, human resources, and information technology Previous positions: Corporate Controller, Crate & Barrel; Director of Professional Services, Parson Group; Director of Corporate Financial Reporting, Montgomery Ward; Audit Manager, Grant Thornton Full-circle fact: Has donated to the College and University, including a $1 million gift to establish the Thomas M. and Julie E. Scott Centennial Scholarship for College of Business students; Julie was the recipient of a Pullman Foundation Scholarship while a student Volunteer and philanthropic service: President, UI College of Business Alumni Association; Board of Directors, UI Alumni Association; Board of Directors and former Finance Committee Chair, YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago; Board of Directors and Finance Committee Chair, St. Ignatius College Prep; Mentor, LInK Scholars; Advisor, ARZU, a non-profit social business enterprise Professional organizations and certifications: CPA; Economic Club of Chicago; Chair of Entrepreneurs Committee, The Chicago network; Executives’ Club of Chicago 14

business.illinois.edu

Q: What led you to found your own company?

Scott: I refer to myself somewhat tongue-in-cheek as an “accidental entrepreneur” because starting a company wasn’t something that I had aspired to do my whole entire life, as with many other entrepreneurs. It was more of an outgrowth of seeing a significant gap in the traditional consulting industry and envisioning a model that would uniquely fill that gap and deliver exceptional service.

At the time, I was running a large finance group, and it was apparent from my experience and that of my peers that there was a desperate need for outside assistance beyond the traditional consulting approach.

There was a need for the hands-on expertise of those who actually worked in our industry. That was the genesis of CTS. now, 14 years later, we’ve found that our unique handson, industry-experienced approach has not only differentiated us, it has created a rewarding experience for our employees and the highest level of satisfaction for our clients.

Q: What are the keys to success in your business?

Scott: The primary focus for our firm is finding the right people to be part of our team and continuing to build

on that team. It takes a great deal of time and patience, but you know them when you find them. The next step is to focus on employee experience, knowing that if I take good care of my staff, they will take good care of our clients. When we build out teams to work on projects, we consider not only relevant prior experience but also how interesting and challenging the work will be for the consultant. Their enthusiasm for the work translates into successful projects with our clients and very high employee retention for our firm.

As a complement to that, on the personal side, we have a very flexible workplace model in terms of hours and scheduling. When I founded CTS, I had a young family myself and didn’t want to travel and live out of a suitcase. Because 95 percent of our firm’s work is with major companies in the Chicago area, our employees are able to be home at night with families and friends, which is important to them. Employee retention is absolutely integral to our success, and because we provide flexibility, rewarding work, and a socialized employee experience, we have very low turnover. In fact, only one person left the firm last year, and she went to work for a CTS client.

That’s compared to the 40 to 50 percent churn in traditional firms.

Q: What skills do you look for when choosing members of your team?

Scott: Creating the ideal project team is our “secret sauce.” First, you have to have the requisite hands-on experience and technical skills in our four service areas. But that’s just the starting point. We want to know: Are you a creative problem solver?

Do you have strong collaborative skills? What kind of a communicator are you? How do you work with others? The answers to all of these questions are important to establishing a strong team dynamic where everyone’s skills and experience mesh to provide the best outcome for the client. We set a high bar.

We’re demanding of one another, but we’re also willing to help each other and have fun. People who have a joy and passion for their work create a strong culture and climate.

They up everyone’s game. CTS is a professional services firm, with “services” as the operative word.

So we are also looking for people who have an appetite to serve.

Q: How would you describe your leadership style?

Scott: I think it’s important to lead by example, to share expectations right up front, and to empower others. That’s true whether you’re leading a team of employees, a group of volunteers, or a new organizational initiative. If you want others to

have ownership and function at their best, it’s best to give them both the responsibility and the room to grow.

That being said, when there are issues, I’m there rolling up my sleeves, too.

I don’t ask others to do something I wouldn’t be willing to do myself.

Q: What have been the challenges as you’ve grown the firm?

Scott: Even 14 years in, we’re still cultivating this new niche industry, which means we have to continue to market our business and ensure that people understand our unique consulting model and the value it provides for their business. At the same time, it’s important that we retain our company culture as we grow, and we have to focus on that every day. We want our culture to be enhanced, not diluted or changed.

Q: What is your go-to strategy when faced with a difficult decision?

Scott: I’ve had strong mentors who have been extremely influential, so when I am facing a difficult decision I seek them out. I like to pick their brains, and I value their feedback. As an entrepreneur, taking advice can sometimes be difficult because by nature we are somewhat stubborn and think we can run everything.

Recognizing that you don’t have all the answers and can benefit from the experience of others is an extremely important and valuable life lesson.

Q: What is the most important career advice you’ve received?

Scott: During my career at Crate & Barrel, founder Gordon Segal taught me a great deal about the importance of integrity, reputation, and confidentiality. We talk about these issues every day at CTS, and we use them as a compass to guide our decisions. Cheryl Francis, former CFO at R.R. Donnelley and co-chair of the Corporate Leadership Center, has provided incredible advice and guidance as well. She leads by example and taught me the same. I remember her telling me: “Don’t make a decision until there is a decision to make.” That’s advice that has helped me think strategically about CTS and my own professional development. She has also truly been a role model in my involvement with philanthropy, both professionally and personally.

Q: What motivates you in your work?

Scott: Making a positive impact on our clients and their businesses translates to me as inspiration and motivation. I want to be sure my clients are in a better position after they’ve interfaced with us than before. I feel the same about the work I do with non-profit organizations, whether that’s board service or volunteering or providing financial support. Being able to make a

difference and have a positive impact on a community, an individual, or an institution is incredibly rewarding.

Q: What obligations do you think leaders have to their communities?

Scott: I feel that all of us have the obligation to give back and improve the world we live in. We all carry that out in different ways, of course.

It’s not always about writing a check. You can give back through serving on a committee or simply attending an event to show your support. There are so many ways to get involved, and it should be in a way that resonates with the individual. For me, it’s natural to give back to the University and the College because I received a scholarship that helped me to attend. That’s why much of the efforts of our family foundation and business go to funding student scholarships. And it’s why I’m happy to serve in leadership roles when asked. When you interact with students, alumni, faculty, and administrators, you gain knowledge and experience about the institution that you didn’t have. There’s an energy about the interaction and the mission that refuels and inspires, too. You get so much more than you give, yet it’s so easy to do.

College of Business I University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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[ THE MAIn EvEnT ]

Take the I-57 Road to Opportunity

H

ow do you build a community of entrepreneurship in the Midwest that can rival Silicon Valley? You start by engaging some of the top innovators and business partners from Chicago and academic leaders from Champaign-Urbana. And that’s just what happened recently at the Entrepreneurship@Illinois event hosted in Chicago by alumni Al Goldstein ‘02 FIN and Mark Tebbe ‘83 ENG as well as the Colleges of Business and Engineering.

There is a synergy between the entrepreneurs of Chicago and the resources of the Illinois campus, where students and faculty are connecting across disciplines and turning ideas into commercialized research. The tech startup scene continues to grow in both locations, which provides a unique opportunity for leaders in Chicago and on campus to partner in growing the entrepreneurial ecosystem to solve the world’s big problems.

Participants at the Entrepreneurship@Illinois event advanced that conversation. Future events on campus and in the city will provide additional opportunities to continue that progress and shrink the distance between entrepreneurship in Chicago and Champaign-Urbana.

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College of Business I University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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14,000+

[ 60-SECOnD PROFILE ]

The number of attendees at the University’s May 2016 commencement at Memorial Stadium, during which Jagdish Sheth was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree for his contributions to the field of marketing

Jagdish Sheth

PROFESSOR EMERITuS, DEPARTMEnT OF BuSInESS ADMInISTRATIOn

8,523

The number of miles between Chennai, India, where Jag finished high school and where his family ran a handicraft business producing jewelry boxes, and the University of Pittsburgh, where he went in 1960 to earn an MBA followed by a PhD in behavioral sciences (marketing was not a major at the time)

18,000

Jag’s yearly salary when he joined the Illinois faculty as an associate professor in 1969; he served as acting head of the Department of Business Administration from 1970 to 1972 and again from 1978 to 1981 and was the Walter H. Stellner Distinguished Professor of Marketing until 1984; he was named professor emeritus 10 years later

4

The number of top academic awards granted by the American Marketing Association; Jag has received all of them: the P.D. Converse Award for Marketing Theory (1998), the Charles Coolidge Parlin Award for Marketing Research (2004), the Richard D. Irwin/McGraw-Hill Marketing Educator Award (2004), and the William L. Wilkie “Marketing for a Better World” Award (2014)

40

The number of books he has published during his career; he is internationally recognized for his contributions in consumer behavior, relationship marketing, competitive strategy, and geopolitical analysis; his autobiography, The Accidental Scholar, includes three chapters devoted to his time at Illinois

54

The number of years he has been married to Madhu, whom he calls his “backbone”; they have 2 children, Reshma and Rajen, and 4 grandchildren

2

The number of foundations established by Jag and Madhu; the Sheth Foundation supports international scholarship at the University of Illinois, doctoral students at the University of Pittsburgh, and the initiatives of several academic professional associations; the Sheth Family Foundation supports more than 50 global and Atlanta-based charitable organizations

25

The number of years he has been a member of the faculty at Emory University's Goizueta Business School

4

The number of industry organizations Jag has founded, including: the India, China, America (ICA) Institute, the Center for Telecommunications Management at USC, the Center for Relationship Marketing at Emory University, and the Academy of Indian Marketing in India

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College of Business I University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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[GAME PLAn ]

GRAND SLAM

“Our goal with the conference is to provide students with strong content about the opportunities and the realities of the work from people who are experienced in different aspects of the industry.”

Emily Barretta

A

s a member of the University of Illinois tennis team, Emily Barretta was always practicing her serves. But one of her biggest winners was an idea she served up as a student in the College of Business.

In 2014, she met with leaders in the athletic department and the College to pitch her plan for a conference aimed at offering students a chance to learn more about careers in business and sports. Something similar was being done at Michigan, so why not Illinois, she thought.

With the support of the College, Barretta founded the Illinois Sports Business Conference, a student-run organization focused on planning the conference and providing opportunities for students to learn more about and connect with business leaders in the sports industry.

The result is a growing group of students committed to the idea (ISBC grew from 28 members to 70 by the second year) and two successful conferences that have drawn students and speakers from across the state and the region.

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The timing of Barretta’s initiative coincides with a boom in the sports business field. A 2014 study by A.T. Kearney, a global management consulting firm, indicates that the industry grew 7 percent per year between 2009 and 2013, which is faster than the GDP in most countries. The study estimates that revenues from events, media rights, tickets, sponsorships, as well as apparel, equipment, and health and fitness spending generate as much as $700 billion each year.

It’s big business that demands big thinking. As a finance

student, Barretta thought what better way to tap into that big thinking than by hearing from those already working in the field.

“Our goal with the conference is to provide students with strong content about the opportunities and the realities of the work from people who are experienced in different aspects of the industry,” says Barretta.

At the 2016 conference that included more than 40 speakers from areas as diverse as law, medicine, marketing, media, finance, accounting and even non-profit.

College of Business I University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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BE VERSaTilE Kieran Kelliher ACCY/FIN ‘04 MAS ‘05 was one of those speakers.

As the director of finance for the Chicago Bulls, he is responsible for what you would expect: financial reporting, budgeting, and risk management. But there are a variety of other responsibilities as well because as Kelliher explains: “The Bulls are a high-profile organization, but with just over 100 employees we’re still really more of a small or midsized family-owned business.”

That means that he has some oversight for and collaboration with additional aspects of the operation, including information technology, human resources, purchasing, and warehousing. With the Bulls recently announcing the establishment of a minor league team, those responsibilities continue to grow. Kelliher is also treasurer of Chicago Bulls Charities.

“There are very few sports teams that are massive companies,” he says.

That’s why it’s so important to be versatile, to be high energy, and to have a positive attitude. “It’s a fastpaced season, so you have to be ready to step into any role that’s needed.

You’re often called upon to help solve issues that aren’t necessarily in your area of expertise. If you want to be successful, you have to be quick on your feet, be ready to multitask, and be prepared to parachute into an issue, come up with an idea and plan, execute something quickly, and offer a professional opinion that will add value. You have to be aware of what you know and don’t know and be confident in what you can offer.”

What Kelliher knew going in to his job with the Bulls was that he had skills as an auditor. “Illinois prepared me incredibly well to step into public accounting and foundationally set me apart from my peers,” he says.

He had worked at Deloitte for nearly a decade, first with retail distribution and construction clients, and then got connected with Deloitte’s sports entertainment group. The Bulls were a client. When their director of finance retired, Michael Reinsdorf offered Kelliher the position.

“This is a dream job that I couldn’t have envisioned when I started in public accounting,” he says. “It demonstrates how important it is to be intentional and active in making connections in the business—and to be

prepared for whatever opportunities may come from those connections.”

FOCuS ON RESulTS Megan Godfrey’s path to a career in the business of sports started with a stint as a professional golfer. After playing for the Fighting Illini for four years and earning her bachelor’s in marketing in 2006, she spent three years trying to qualify for the LPGA Tour.

Though it didn’t work out, it’s an experience Godfrey says she wouldn’t trade for the world. Now as a public relations account supervisor for KemperLesnik, she’s blending her love of the game and her skills as a marketer to help implement strategic communications plans for sports

“ Illinois prepared me incredibly well to step into public accounting and foundationally set me apart from my peers.”

Kieran Kelliher

clients, many of which are in the golf industry.

She traveled to campus to share her perspectives with students at the 2016 conference. “To break into sports PR, you have to be very resultsfocused. You can’t take ‘no’ for an answer; in fact, you may hear five ‘no’s’ before you get a ‘yes.’ The competitiveness, drive, and work ethic that you need to be a successful athlete are the same skills you need to be successful in promoting your sports clients.”

In addition, Godfrey advises aspiring PR professionals, regardless of whether they’re in the sports industry or not, to hone their writing and verbal skills. “These are paramount because you will be writing and pitching stories all day, reaching out and establishing relationships with journalists across all media platforms.”

Like Kelliher, Godfrey suggests exposing yourself to a broad spectrum of business issues and roles and observing your company from a variety of angles. “That gives you a great platform from which to problem solve, which enhances your value as a team member,” she says.

Godfrey also offers a word of caution for those working directly with athletes, as she has done for events like the 2015 BMW Championship. “You have to separate your internal fan self from your professional self in the workplace. You're a partner doing a job, and a big part of that job is to respect the athletes and the access you have to them.”

“The competitiveness, drive, and work ethic that you need to be a successful athlete are the same skills you need to be successful in promoting your sports clients.”

Wszolek. “You can’t be there just because you love the game.

You have to have strong business knowledge and skills, creativity, and a drive to work long hours and nights and weekends.”

It’s that last part that prompted Wszolek to make a change as he became a dad to a growing family. So he altered his career path, combining his love for sports and the University of Illinois with his business acumen, first working in fundraising at the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics at Illinois and now serving as senior executive of marketing and media for the University.

“To break into the sports business, Wszolek suggests students look at all sides of the industry and be willing to take a beginning job. That’s what he did as an usher for the Cubs during summers in high school— commuting 50 miles each way from his hometown of Peotone to Wrigley.

“Don’t pigeonhole yourself,” he tells students. “If your end goal is to work for a professional team, you’re likely going to have to start somewhere else, work hard, make strong connections, and find ways to be different from the rest of the thousands of people who want the job you aspire to. It’s hard, but it’s worth it.”

Cathy Lockman

•

Megan Godfrey

DiFFERENTiaTE YOuRSElF Matt Wszolek ’00 BA agrees that success in the sports industry isn’t about being a superfan. “There are millions of sports fans; for many people, it’s part of their identity,” he says.

“If you ask me about myself, I’ll tell you about my family, my work, and that I love the Chicago Cubs and the University of Illinois. It’s part of who I am, but being a loyal and longtime fan isn’t what the industry is looking for. They’re looking for someone who understands business, who has heart, hustle, and determination, and who differentiates themselves.”

That’s certainly what Wszolek did to get his foot in the door of the

Cubs organization. When an ad for an entry-level marketing position was published in the Chicago Tribune, the team received 750 applications the first day. All but one of them were faxed or emailed in.

Wszolek took his to Wrigley Field at 6:30 a.m. and waited in a snowy parking lot for John McDonough, then the head of marketing for the Cubs. He hand delivered his application and spent the next 10 years working for the organization, the last two as director of sales and promotions.

“Every single person wants your job when you’re working directly with a sports franchise,” says

“You can’t be there just because you love the game. You have to have strong business knowledge and skills, creativity, and a drive to work long hours and nights and weekends.”

Matt Wszolek

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College of Business I University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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[ InnOvATIOn ] “When you have thousands of students from around the world in a course. . . . that brings great energy and perspective to the conversation.”

Harms’ Way

Kevin Hartman

FATHER AND SON PURSUE iMBA TOGETHER

A

l Harms ’71 LAS and his oldest son Kevin ’92 ENG have a lot in common. They were both born at Carle Hospital in Urbana and found a college home at Illinois. Both married Illinois graduates, too. Al met Gina ’71 LAS at freshmen orientation, and Kevin met Pam ’92 ENG in Physics 106 their first year. After graduation, both men had long and successful careers with the U.S. Navy. Al, a vice admiral, retired in 2005 after 34 years, and Kevin, a naval aviator for 20 years, transitioned to the civilian workforce in 2012.

Now as students in the first cohort of the College’s online MBA program, the Harms’ paths continue to converge.

“One thing I always loved about the military is that there was always a new experience around the corner, new people, new countries, new challenges,” says Al. “Lifelong learning has also always been important to me.”

So when he received an email announcing the iMBA program, his interest was piqued. Heading back to academics after a long hiatus wasn’t a stretch for Al; he’d done it several years after graduating from Illinois when he earned a master’s

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from around the world. There is an extraordinary diversity of cultural and educational backgrounds that the group brings to the learning environment and the team projects. I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to learn with and from such a diverse and talented group.”

FlEXiBlE aND aFFORDaBlE

degree in statistics from Texas A&M University in 1978. Plus, he’d watched his father, Alfred Sr., return to school in his forties to earn a master’s degree and a PhD in agricultural economics from the University of Illinois.

On top of that, Al had been directly involved with higher education from 2005 until 2013, serving as the vice president for strategy, marketing, communications, and admissions at the University of Central Florida.

“When I thought about this learning opportunity, the challenge fascinated me,” he says. “Don’t get me

wrong, it was also daunting because the online delivery system wasn’t one I knew. But as a board member for a prep school in Orlando, I knew that third graders were doing it, so I thought: ‘Come on Harms, you better get comfortable with it.’”

Since taking his first class in January, Al’s comfort level has grown considerably and so has his knowledge base and his connections.

“The iMBA program expands your capability to operate in today’s global business community,” says Al. “The learning experience mimics today’s business environment because our cohort includes people

Kevin shares his father’s commitment to lifelong learning. In addition to his bachelor’s degree, he has earned a master’s in electrical engineering from Illinois and a master’s in national security and strategy from the Naval War College. Kevin is now a senior analyst and member of the executive leadership team for a veteran-owned company that works on analysis projects and acquisition programs in support of the Naval Air System Command.

“My previous educational endeavors had been primarily technical and professional military education,” says Kevin. “I look at the MBA as an opportunity to get a solid grounding in economics, finance, and marketing and as a way to round out my knowledge and skills so that I can make stronger contributions to my company and my community.”

Kevin ruled out residential MBA programs because he didn’t want to interrupt his career or move his young family. A communication he received about the iMBA program was perfectly timed. “I thought about its benefits, which would allow me to continue my work and keep my family in Maryland. Plus, it’s super flexible and affordable and would give me a chance to expand my network and meet lots of talented people from around the world.”

So father and son jumped in—Al taking his classes from Florida and Kevin from Maryland—or wherever they happen to be traveling for business or pleasure.

PRaCTiCal aND ValuaBlE For Kevin, there’s been immediate practical application from his first two classes—Microeconomics and Everyday Leadership. “I’ve already been able to make more meaningful contributions in real situations within my company because of the information and strategies the courses have provided.”

Al sees the benefits of the iMBA in his work as a board member for profit and non-profit organizations and in his role as a concerned and

active global citizen. Plus, it keeps him engaged with the younger generation.

“If you’re going to be relevant in the world, you’d better know what young people from countries and cultures different from your own are doing and thinking. The iMBA is a stimulating experience that gives me the opportunity to do that.”

Kevin agrees. “Colleagues in the cohort and those teaching and administering the program are a very motivated group. It’s professionally rewarding to interact with people with various life experiences and who bring those different perspectives to the conversation.”

For Al, who was awarded the University’s Alumni Achievement Award in 2005, there’s another compelling reason to be a part of the iMBA. “An MBA is so universal in its utility. It is a degree that would serve most people extremely well regardless of their career trajectory, but the iMBA is even more valuable because it has the reputation of the University of Illinois behind it.”

Cathy Lockman

EXPaNDiNG THE CONVERSaTiON

O

ne of the many aspects of the iMBA experience that Al and Kevin Harms appreciate is the opportunity to hear many different points of view.

That expanded conversation benefits everyone, says Kevin Hartman, Google’s head of analytics and an instructor for the iMBA’s digital marketing analytics courses. “When you have thousands of students from around the world in a course, you have the potential to have many diverse voices. That brings great energy and perspective to the conversation. Students don’t hesitate to challenge one another or the theories or ideas being presented. The chat rooms provide even more opportunities to engage and explain and enhance the conversation.”

And there are other practical benefits, too, says Hartman. “The online delivery mechanism makes it so easy for students to review the course content of a practitioner like me and then switch quickly to get the perspective of an academician who has studied the subject and looks at it through another lens.”

For more information on how you can add your voice to the global business conversation and earn an iMBA, visit onlinemba.illinois.edu.

•

College of Business I University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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[ EnTREPREnEURSHIP ]

Creative Thinking HOW GOOD iDEaS EMERGE

I

f the term “creative job” conjures up mental images of a workplace with unicycles hanging from the ceiling, retro arcade games in the break room, and graffiti murals adorning the walls, you better toss that idea aside and think again.

Creativity exists in more than the typical “creative” industries, and today’s business environment proves it. Every job demands some form of creative thinking, and it can augment the skill set of any employee.

In fact, the concept of creativity is dominating the LinkedIn lexicon. The word “creative” was among the top-ten most frequently used words in LinkedIn profiles last year.

What does it take to be creative? Perspectives checked in with several alumni to uncover how they employ creativity to help their businesses thrive.

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KaTHlEEN WRiGHT For two years, Kathleen Wright, CEO of Piece & Co., became a little too familiar with hearing the word “no.”

She was in the nascent stages of building her company, which aims to source artisan-made textiles from the developing world to leading global fashion brands. But every meeting with a brand ended with a closed door. She remained steadfast: “Every ‘no,’ once I understood why they were saying it, I would go build the business to make it a ‘yes’ next time.”

With consumer trends forcing fashion brands to rethink how they were doing business, the 2003 marketing graduate saw an opportunity to establish a new kind of supply chain using existing artisan cooperatives within the developing world.

They had the equipment and structure needed to fulfill a growing demand from the Western market but lacked proper technology, training, and access.

“We built a flexible model that allows us to partner with an artisan cooperative and offer the technology, training, and resources required for them to scale,” says Wright. “We created a decentralized model in places that are traditionally hard to work, and not only made it work, but left a powerful imprint on families and communities in vulnerable parts of the world.”

The upscale fashion brand Tory Burch was one of the first to bring Piece & Co. aboard, and Wright has been adding more ever since, including Diane von Furstenberg, Alice & Olivia, Rebecca Minkoff, and Nike.

She expects additional challenges in the future but remains committed to her mission of fighting global poverty by providing employment opportunities to females in the developing world. Balancing that mission on top of profit goals can be daunting, but “it’s important to hold yourself to really high standards,” she says. It’s proof that creativity can have a worldwide impact.

MiCHaEl SallaNDER In 2010, Michael Sallander and his Chicago Digital business partner boarded a plane to Los Angeles for an Adobe business conference. The future of their company was at stake.

They could hardly afford the ticket.

The expense of a conference pass wasn’t even within their means, so they picked up what they could—a Hall-Only pass. It was risky, but it paid off. They deftly networked and developed key relationships with Adobe, forging the origins of an effective path for their web agency as a builder of sites using the Adobe Business Catalyst platform.

Glorified in the early tales of many successful companies are simi-

lar all-chips-on-the-table occasions.

But there are also less sexy moments, when an equally large risk is taken.

This occurred when Sallander and his partner realized they had erred when assigning each other’s responsibilities.

“It turns out we got our roles completely wrong,” says the 2009 business administration grad. So they switched functions. Sallander passed off the site-building tasks he’d been handling and instead took over selling and project management duties. This insight was a turning point for the company and spurred them to new heights.

This philosophy has helped Chicago Digital continue to thrive through even more business shifts.

Sallander has found his unique creative outlet. He says, “Creativity for me—I’m not an artist—it’s in problem-solving.” In a brainstorm, he’s not afraid to propose a crazy idea. He adds, “The person who’s scared to have a bad idea will never get to a good idea.”

SEaN CHOu Entrepreneur Sean Chou knows that creative thinking must be infused into any company’s culture. “There’s a thin line between creative and noncreative disciplines,” he says. His ideas emerge from one of two mental queries: “What do we have a problem with?” or “I wish I could…”

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They’re incredibly skilled in their particular field, but they also possess vigor for business building.

They aren’t afraid of risk taking.

WHaT MaKES a CREaTiVE THiNKER? They recognize the importance of establishing a culture of creativity.

The psychology major used his creative skills while working on Illinois Business Consulting projects as a student and later as a senior consultant with Arthur Andersen. Then for 14 years, the 1995 graduate put those creative strategies to use to help build and eventually sell Fieldglass, a vendor management system, to SAP. Inspiration for his new company, Catalytic, and their product, Pushbot, a business processes platform, came by ruminating on the same questions: “What is a current problem, why isn’t there a successful solution, and how can I make it better?”

For Chou, the problem was finding innovative ways to tackle continuous, recurring business process problems. He wanted many of those complications off his plate and realized this was a common covet among businesses. He also recognized that the space was mostly occupied by incumbent legacy players and an emerging set of new players with no clear winners. A problem was identified, and his current pursuit was born. “The relatability of problems is key,” he says.

Being an entrepreneur and Catalytic’s CEO is a deep dive into an ocean of hard decisions. Chou’s motto: “Become comfortable with a level of discomfort.” Fear actually spurs his creativity. “Pressure, timelines, deadlines, all help my creative process get moving,” he says. Focus, find a problem, and figure out the solution.

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MaRK ESSiG Mark Essig and a team of his employees were in their offices at FKI Security Group, staring at one of their products, a fireproof attaché case. He challenged them to envision what else it could be. A team member had the idea to install a small humidor within the case. Eureka. Now it could be marketed as a portable case to cigar aficionados for carrying their precious cargo.

As the CEO of a commercial safe and asset protection supplier, creativity might not be viewed as a necessary skill for Essig to possess. But the 1985 MBA graduate maintains that a culture of creativity is essential for his company’s success. “Creativity is needed even in industrial businesses,” he says. “It’s often the only way to differentiate ourselves.”

By re-designing the case into a portable humidor, the FKI team created a new product and revenue stream without the expense of hiring an outside product design company.

By forcing themselves to look at things in a different light, they produced something brand new. “We thought our way through it,” says Essig. He also believes it to be a morale booster for his employees, who feel the pride that a collective team effort generates. They get to think of themselves as Industrial MacGyvers, creating something from only what they had in front of them.

They accept they will fail at times, but it’s part of the learning experience.

Essig stresses the old axiom that there are no bad ideas and any thought can lead to something great.

Within a truly creative culture, there’s a workaround to any problem.

aNDREa RuEDi Making connections and expanding your business network is like building savings over time.

You never know when you’ll need to tap into them or when one will pay off; the primary goal is to keep assembling more.

No one knows this better than Andrea Ruedi, CEO of Fox Development Corporation in Champaign.

Her company is the developer of the University’s Research Park, and one of her main duties is to encourage businesses to set up offices in the space. While it might not seem like a creative endeavor, Ruedi has made it one. She custom develops each pitch, adjusting to meet specific needs and personalizing as much as possible.

She’ll utilize University contacts when she can, but is always ready to reach deep into the digital Rolodex she’s built over her career.

All of these help increase her odds of success. She views every pitch as a creative opportunity, continually thinking of innovative communication strategies.

“Not everyone should get the same pitch,” Ruedi says. People can sniff out a template letter. Personalization makes all the difference. Also,

contacts lead to more contacts, thus proving the “networking is everything” mantra.

The 2013 EMBA graduate speaks to the power of networking when advising current Illinois students, along with telling them, “make sure you’re always challenged.” She’s realized that looking at tasks with a creative eye is the best way to uncover unique solutions.

NiCK BOBiCH “The art of the possible” is what Nick Bobich calls the creative credo he uses to begin every assignment. As a manager at Accenture Strategy, the 2006 finance graduate spearheads teams that provide strategic consulting to increasingly global companies. “The art of the possible” involves looking at each assignment with a blue-sky mentality: throw away any preconceptions and simply have an open mind about the best potential avenues to explore. Then figure out how to actually implement and deliver those concepts in a way that works for the client. “It leads to our best thinking and ideas,” he says.

Bobich incorporates creativity within the scope of every project.

“It’s a collective process among our team and the clients.” He’s continually asking, “Are we focused on the right things? What aren’t we thinking about?”

Their process isn’t that different from the ways in which an agency in a creative industry would handle it.

They do the same type of initial research, locate the problems, think up an abundance of ideas, and then help execute them.

That upfront phase of development is key—it is difficult to truly be creative unless you understand the client and their business. For Bobich and his team, that usually means working together onsite at a client’s office. “To say I truly understand their business model, I need to put in the time and be with them,” he says.

“That puts you in a better position to gather valuable information and deliver recommendations that are credible.” It’s a simple philosophy that leads to big ideas.

aSHTON & RYaN ClaRK

are committed to speed. If one has a great idea, within seconds they’re itching to bring it to life. First, they create a name for the business and purchase the dot-com. Domain buying is basically their digital moleskin notebook, preserving all ideas for their eventual emergence into the Dynamik Duo portfolio.

Their strategy is the opposite of what Ashton refers to as the “wantrepreneurs,” which denote wannabe entrepreneurs who lack the passion to make it happen.

“You can’t be taught to be creative or to be an entrepreneur,” Ashton says. “You have to have the passion for turning nothing into something.” Adds Ryan: “Ideas are cheap; execution is what matters.”

Their goal is to continue to foster an environment of creativity. But for now, it’s about getting everything done and also finding time to sleep.

campaign,” says the 1991 LAS grad. “I needed something to stand out because there are more and more things that we compete with for someone’s entertainment dollar— not just other museums.”

Adding to that, Lapides was new to the museum world. There was a lot of learning early on: “It’s a nonprofit, it’s a Chicago cultural institution. It’s been here longer than I have and will be here much longer than me. Also, you realize you’re working for a mission here, and not just for a dollar.”

He began by establishing his target market. Instead of identifying an age group or gender, he referred to them as, “the curious.” He realized the Adler advantage is that space is something with which the public has a natural fascination. While playing off this desire for people to satisfy their curiosity, the campaign has taken off like a rocket.

MaRC laPiDES

When Ashton Clark and Ryan Clark had a class together at Illinois, teachers used to assign mandatory seats to only the two of them. Identical twins can be hard to tell apart, after all.

One of many things the twin entrepreneurs and 2010 accountancy graduates share is a passion for coming up with smart business ventures, which they establish under their moniker Dynamik Duo. They’re also setting Olympic-level records for multitasking. Currently, they balance working full-time jobs, supervising their Dynamik Duo businesses, investing in real estate, and developing their own finance-focused television show.

Plus, Ashton is completing his MBA. “The best time to start a business was yesterday,” says Ryan. The Clarks

Marc Lapides, chief marketing officer of the Adler Planetarium, had just finished presenting his new advertising campaign to the Adler board. “I could hear a pin drop,” he says of the moment. “I didn’t know if I was going to lose my job.”

As is typical of new campaigns, the idea was good, but it was also different. And with the tagline “Space is Freaking Awesome,” it was bold. “But they came around by the end of the meeting,” Lapides says. The campaign has since become a huge success for Adler.

When Lapides started his new job, he outlined the planet-sized task in front of him. Adler was experiencing declining or flat revenue and attendance. “It did not need a subtle

DaN KlEiN “How is a product this good so hard to find?” That question spurred Dan Klein, a 2010 finance graduate, and his business partner Patrick Tannous to start their own brand of loose-leaf teas, Tiesta Tea. In 2009, while studying abroad in Europe, they met up at a café in Prague and experienced a taste bud renaissance in the form of a cup of loose-leaf tea called Granny’s Garden. Upon returning stateside and discovering it unavailable, they decided to start their own company with the aim of giving Americans a better form of tea at an affordable price.

An early business shift occurred when they curtailed most sales efforts toward cafés, realizing the more

immense value of grocery stores. But an immediate challenge emerged. In 2012, when negotiating with Southeast grocery chain Winn-Dixie, they couldn’t afford the expensive slotting fees that were demanded of any brand looking to secure elusive shelf space. Slotting fees are a long-running industry practice, but Klein and Tannous had a novel idea, something they called the Demo Derby.

Klein describes the moment: “We told them we’d do demos in the stores, instead of paying a slotting fee. We felt we could sell more product that way, earning the store more money than they would have received from a slotting fee. We had data from our demos in Mariano’s [a Chicago-based grocery chain] that showed when people try our product and learn more about loose-leaf tea, they walk away fans.” Like a sprouting tea leaf, their business flourished under this new strategy.

By concocting a creative solution to a financial issue, they’ve boosted sales, with grocery stores now comprising the bulk of profits. Klein sums it up, “Building a business is a tough road. You have to get creative with everything.”

Dave Kuhl

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Editor’s Note: As a marketing graduate turned creative director, Dave Kuhl ’02 BA certainly knows a thing or two about the concept of creativity. Even so, he says: “I feel as if I received an unofficial MBA from soaking in the collective creative knowledge of fellow alumni” he interviewed for Perspectives. It proves, says Kuhl, that “you don’t have to have multicolored hair or a full-sleeve tattoo to be considered ‘creative.’”

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[ EnvIROnMEnTAL ECOnOMICS ]

D

Climate of Concern

In the not-so-distant future, scorching Texas-style summers could become the new norm for Illinoisans, say scientists. Even more dramatic effects could be found in coastal states like Florida, where some predict that one-third of the land mass might be swallowed up by the sea. All courtesy of climate change.

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espite the dire picture painted by scientists about climate change, residents of Illinois and other inland states often feel a false sense of security.

“Here in Illinois, we tend to think climate change is much more of a problem for places like New Orleans, which will face higher sea levels and storm surges,” says Don Fullerton, professor of finance and an environmental economist. “But that’s just wrong.”

Compared to coastal regions, climate change will unfold more slowly and subtly in Illinois over the next 10 to 20 years. Less dramatic, perhaps, but climate change will be no less disruptive to the Land of Lincoln. According to Fullerton and colleagues Julian Reif, assistant professor of finance, and Megan Konar, assistant professor of civil engineering, that disruption will have economic and societal consequences beyond the environmental toll.

To make that point clear to policy makers, the trio recently coauthored an article for Illinois Issues.

It illustrates what climate change could mean for Illinois.

“We need to think about planning for potential [climate] changes as insurance against potentially catastrophic risks. . . . It’s money well spent to insure ourselves against that risk.”

Don Fullerton

COSTS OF CliMaTE CHaNGE In Fullerton’s view, the problem is not so much what we know about climate change as what we don’t know.

“The problem is not just increases in temperature—the bigger problem is the uncertainty,” he says.

“The average temperature could increase by 2, 4, or 6 degrees, we don’t

know which. And within any of those scenarios is a whole lot of variation.”

Reif agrees that the variability is an issue. “The effects of climate change are likely to vary drastically from location to location. For example, scientists project that ozone levels will increase in Illinois, particularly around the Chicago area, but will decrease in the Southern states.”

But while much remains murky, one thing is clear: fundamental changes to temperature and precipitation have already begun. These changes pave the way for more droughts, floods, and heat waves in the coming years.

Scientists predict that Illinois will see more rainfall in the spring.

This will lead to more severe flooding, which already causes $700 million in damages in Illinois every year.

Future summers are expected to bring more droughts.

Already, average air temperature has increased by about 2 degrees Fahrenheit since the beginning of the industrial age due to fossil fuel emissions—but it’s the peaks that worry Fullerton.

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“The average temperature increasing from 70 to 75 degrees is not the issue; it’s that the very hottest days could go from 95 to 100 degrees or more, putting the most vulnerable among us at greater risk,” he says.

The 1995 Chicago heat wave— which led to more than 700 heatrelated deaths in a five-day period— offers a stark reminder of the potential human cost of climate change.

Higher temperatures also add to ozone air pollution, which further jeopardizes human health and the health of our planet.

“The potential health problems we face are huge,” says Fullerton, who notes that sea level rise and hotter summers in developing countries can even contribute to conflict and civil wars. “Climate change is very socially disruptive—even polarizing.”

RiPPlE EFFECTS Beyond human health, climate change will have far-reaching impacts on the economic health of our state.

“Current economic activity has developed in line with the current climate,” says Konar. That means “changes to the climate will impact the economic activities that rely on local climate conditions.”

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“There is not much Illinois by itself can do to affect its outdoor temperatures, but state-level policies such as an increase in the gas tax could help reduce ozone levels by discouraging driving.”

Julian Reif Perhaps more than anyone, our state’s farmers will feel the impact deeply and directly. Increased rainfall and flooding in the spring will hinder planting, while droughts in the summer will stifle crop production.

“Illinois’ current climate, soil, and rainfall are perfectly suited to growing corn and soybeans, but as the climate changes, our state may no longer be suited to these crops,” says Fullerton. “We need to think

about planning for other kinds of crops.”

In the years to come, irrigation may be the lifeline needed to help Illinois crops survive long, dry summers.

“Farmers don’t think it is needed because it never has been—and they can’t afford it,” says Fullerton. “The state can begin to invest in irrigation infrastructure now to help farmers adapt.”

Even with irrigation, agricultural production—so critical to the Illinois economy—will likely decrease, driving food prices up and impacting dependent industries such as livestock producers and transportation companies.

Climate change will also test the limits of our electrical grid, as hotter summers lead more people to crank up the air conditioning.

The poor—unable to afford air conditioning—will bear the brunt of the health risks, while struggling to keep up with the higher costs of food and energy.

PlaNNiNG FOR aN uNWElCOME FuTuRE Climate change’s most dramatic effects are forecasted to

occur between 2040 and 2070, making an immediate call to action even more difficult. But considering the lead time needed for major infrastructure projects—not to mention the planning process itself—the professors say there is no time to waste.

“We need to start thinking about what our state can do now to prepare,” says Fullerton, who points to Chicago’s Climate Action Plan and proactive approaches to storm water management.

“Some of the impacts of climate change are easier to mitigate than others,” says Reif. “For example, there is not much Illinois by itself can do to affect its outdoor temperatures, but state-level policies such as an increase in the gas tax could help reduce ozone levels by discouraging driving.”

Investing in research is a good place to start.

“Scary thresholds exist that we need to better understand, such as climate regimes in which food production is no longer feasible,” says Konar.

“Investing in research is important to evaluate the potential impacts.”

Once we better understand the likely impacts, targeted invest-

“Scary thresholds exist that we need to better understand, such as climate regimes in which food production is no longer feasible.”

Megan Konar ments in water, transportation, and electric infrastructure will help us adapt to the coming changes, says Reif.

POliTiCal CliMaTE In spite of overwhelming scientific evidence, some politicians dismiss climate change outright.

For others, it is more a matter of political self-preservation to ignore an “inconvenient truth”—or at least delay the discussion.

“A carbon tax hurts the auto industry and the coal industry, so it is politically expedient to ignore the issue,” says Fullerton. “There is always self-interest involved.”

Fullerton and his colleagues propose an Illinois State Advisory Board or Task Force to examine the sweeping changes that will come with climate change. Academia can help by delivering the facts needed for informed decision making.

“The University can help by providing an environment where faculty can perform more research on the consequences of—and solutions to—the effects of climate change,” says Reif.

For now, he and his colleagues would be happy to heat up the climate change conversation in our state’s capital.

Using a risk management analogy, Fullerton points out that few homeowners ever regret buying property insurance—even if their home never burns down.

“We need to think about planning for potential changes as insurance against potentially catastrophic risks,” he says. “Right now we face a risk. It’s money well spent to insure ourselves against that risk.”

Celeste Huttes

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[ WORDS FROM THE YS ]

What real-world learning experiences have you had while a student in the College of Business, and how have those experiences impacted your future?

If experience is the best teacher, then students in our College of Business are well taught. That’s because they have access to unique experiential learning opportunities in addition to being taught by some of the most talented and experienced professors in the country. Several of our students shared with Perspectives how those opportunities have helped them experience success.

I had the opportunity to be inI’ve been blessed to have had so “volved “many “I knew I would need real-world exin OTCR, which is a studentopportunities as a student perience to break into the fashion

As a student in the Hoeft Techthe end of my freshman year, I “nology “I had an idea for a business. Fortu- “wasAtoffered “One of my professors suggested & Management program, I nately, the entrepreneurial focus in a position as an assistant that I get involved in Illinois Business

run consulting organization made up of business and engineering students.

Between that experience, my internships at Motorola and PwC, and my work starting the Illinois Consulting Academy, which connects students with consulting professionals, I learned that management consulting is the career for me. I really enjoyed the variety of projects, the collaborative approach to problem solving, and the ability to develop a strong skill set from the diverse experiences.

From all of those experiences, I learned to think broadly, to get input from others, and that you don’t have to come up with the right answer all by yourself.

had an opportunity to interview for an internship with Abbott Labs and was fortunate to be one of two students chosen for an international assignment. I traveled to the Abbott manufacturing plant in Jiaxing, China, which produces Similac and supports all of China’s demand for that product. So it was an extraordinary opportunity to learn about the entire supply chain while providing data support for a company initiative. The internship was extremely challenging and had a very high learning curve, but it’s that kind of opportunity that differentiates our College of Business from others.

”

Brandon Bencko Lake in the Hills, Illinois Class of 2016, Accountancy/Finance Will be working at PwC Consulting

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here. At the end of my freshman year, I participated in PwC’s Start program, where I gained real-world financial training. I was fortunate to be selected for leadership opportunities like MBA Jump Start, Bank of America’s Financial Leadership Summit, Management Leadership for Tomorrow, and the Wells Fargo Leadership Conference, all of which helped me develop my written and oral presentation skills as well as analytical and quantitative skills. I’ve had opportunities to succeed and to fail and have learned so much from both. Before I came to Illinois, I heard that the College of Business is a great place to gain practical experience, and that certainly has been true for me.

”

Ron Lewis Westchester, Illinois Class of 2017, Finance Incoming President of the Illinois Student Senate

marketing niche, and I had role models in the College who showed passion for their work and encouraged me to pursue my dreams and work hard. With that support, I had the confidence to pursue internships at a modeling agency in Paris, at Seventeen magazine in New York, and at Nordstrom’s marketing department in Seattle. I learned the strategies of marketing in the classroom and was able to directly put them to use in my internships. These opportunities provided invaluable handson marketing experience.

”

Tatiana Stevenin Edina, Minnesota Class of 2016, Marketing/Management Will be working as an assistant merchant at Abercrombie & Fitch

”

Vivian Tse Chicago, Illinois Class of 2016, Supply Chain Management/Information Systems & Information Technology Will be working at Abbott

the College provides strong support for student start-ups. As I developed my idea for a mobile app that tracks weightlifting workouts, I found there were many opportunities inside the classroom and outside to get help refining my concept, to get feedback on a business plan, and even to get financial assistance. We made our most significant progress when we were accepted into the University’s iVenture Accelerator. They provided $10,000 in funding and developmental support. There’s no better real-world experience than getting the chance to be an entrepreneur.

”

Helom Berhane Lombard, Illinois Class of 2016, Accountancy/ Information Systems & Information Technology Will be implementing his business plan for MyMetrics

in Professor Tiffany White’s marketing research group. As a team of undergraduates, we had the chance to get hands-on experience with projects that focused on how consumers make decisions and form attachments to brands. We designed market research tests and conducted experiments to test marketing theories. Plus, we got to see the complete process from hypothesis to experimental design to experiment execution to data collection and analysis. You can’t duplicate that in a classroom. Working with a faculty member on their research is an incredible learning experience.

Consulting because he knew I wanted to get the broadest exposure to business. It was some of the best advice I got as a student. My work with IBC was so varied and valuable.

There’s a lot to be learned from the projects themselves but even more to be gained when you listen and collaborate with others. It’s especially true with IBC because team members come from a variety of disciplines beyond business and there are graduate students on the teams as well. Each IBC team member brings a unique perspective that broadens the learning for everyone.

Shawn Lee Peoria, Illinois Class of 2016, Marketing/Business Process Management Will be working at MGM Resorts International in Las Vegas

Liz Troyk Morton Grove, Illinois Class of 2016, Supply Chain Management/Marketing Will begin her career in KPMG’s advisory practice in Chicago

”

”

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[ THE REASOn WHY ] WHO Giorgi Kvirikashvili WHaT Became the 12th Prime Minister of Georgia in December 2015

“The campus has changed since 1998, but I’m glad to notice the warmth of the student body and the passion of the faculty has not.”

WHERE Georgia, which declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, borders Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Russia

Giorgi Kvirikashvili

WHEN Earned a master’s of finance from the College in 1998

GEORGIA On HIS MInD

M

organ Lynge’s farewell message to the master’s of finance graduates in 1998 couldn’t have been more prophetic, especially about one member of the class— Giorgi Kvirikashvili, then a 30-year-old father of three from the country of Georgia.

Lynge, who was chair of the finance department at the time, praised the group of 41 students from across the world for so brilliantly rising to the challenge of “using a new language, living in a different culture, learning new theories, techniques, and financial practices, [and dealing] with the pressures of financial turmoil in your home countries while far away.” That perseverance and fortitude, Lynge wrote at the time, “marks you as those who will be the leaders of your generation in your countries.” nearly two decades later, Lynge’s predication was borne out when Kvirikashvili returned to campus, this time as the prime minister of his country. Champaign-Urbana was one stop on Kvirikashvili’s five-day, fourcity trip to the United States, his first since being named prime minister last December.

“Being here is a major highlight of my trip,” Kvirikashvili told the students, faculty, and administrators who gathered in Deloitte Auditorium to hear from this world leader about his time at Illinois, his vision for his country, and the importance of American-Georgian relations.

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“The campus has changed since 1998,” he said, “but I’m glad to notice the warmth of the student body and the passion of the faculty has not.”

Kvirikashvili recalled how important that camaraderie and commitment was to him when he first came to Illinois because he was away from his young family.

He was here to study the freemarket economy, but along the way he learned a whole lot more. He became a fan of football and jazz festivals; he was exposed to American customs, Midwest values, and learned about the diverse cultures of his international classmates. And when he had a chance to share his culture with them, he did.

Kvirikashvili recalled that when a Georgian dance troupe came to the Krannert Center in 1998, he invited 16 of his friends to the performance.

“I had tears in my eyes to see how my friends embraced my culture. It also took me a long time to pay off my credit card bill from buying all the tickets,” he said with a smile.

DRaMaTiC PROGRESS After Kvirikashvili earned his degree in 1998, he returned to Georgia with “a new way of solving problems and the skills to pursue a career in finance.” That career included serving as CEO of Cartu Bank, one of the largest commercial banks in Georgia.

In addition, he served as a member of the Parliament of Georgia from 1999

to 2004 and as his country’s minister of economy and sustainable development and minister of foreign affairs before being nominated as prime minister by the Georgian Dream coalition last year.

Kvirikashvili shared with the audience his pride in the great strides his country has made since regaining its independence from Russia 25 years ago as well as his government’s vision for the future.

“Today, Georgia is a modern and dynamic state, a world from where we were two decades ago,” he explained. “Every area of our country has progressed dramatically. We have the ninth lowest tax burden in the world; we have eradicated corruption and attracted investments. Unemployment has dropped, and we are on course to join nATO.” Still, he says, there is much work to be done. “We have an ambitious reform agenda for Georgia to modernize us into a European state,” the prime minister said. That includes education reform, economic liberalization, and capital market reform. He also mentioned a focus on entrepreneurship and infrastructure improvements, where the private sector can play an important role.

“We faced a fierce struggle inside and outside our county to get to this point,” he told the audience.

“Georgians have made hard sacrifices and are committed to the future. The support of the U.S. has been crucial

to our existence and integral to this journey.”

COOPERaTiVE SPiRiT Kvirikashvili also stressed that Georgia is a dedicated, stable geopolitical partner to the United States and that the countries have enjoyed economic, military, and cultural cooperation, which he hopes to extend even further.

“The concept of cooperation is more than an abstract notion,” he said, telling the audience he experienced that spirit of working together firsthand from the day he set foot in the College. The memory of that cooperative spirit from students and faculty “is something that I still cherish today.” It’s also something that he encouraged students to explore by moving beyond their comfort zones.

“Absorb as much as you can in your time here,” Kvirikashvili advised.

“Encounter new ideas and seek out people different from yourself.”

And then he issued an invitation.

“I hope you all will visit Georgia. We are a beautiful seaside destination.

Our people are famous for their hospitality, and we are a cradle of winemaking. As budding businessmen and women, we will welcome you with open arms. You will find a great business environment in our country.”

Cathy Lockman

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WHY Came to the College in 1997 through the Edmund S. Muskie Graduate Fellowship Program, supported by the U.S. Department of State; when he returned to campus this spring as part of a five-day, four-city U.S. trip, he called his time at Illinois as a graduate student “a life-changing experience”

On his recent visit to campus, Giorgi Kvirikashvili was welcomed

by Dean Jeffrey Brown, Interim Chancellor Barbara Wilson, and Professor Emeritus Roger Cannaday.

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[ PARTING SHOT ]

There’s a time for work and a time for fun. The Class of 2016 did both.

There’s no need for these seniors to cover their eyes, ears, or mouths because they covered all their bases. They excelled inside and outside the classroom. They pursued leadership positions in College and campus organizations.

They distinguished themselves as collaborators, innovators, scholars, and entrepreneurs. They worked hard. But, as you can see, they had fun, too. Congratulations and best of luck to the Class of 2016.