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UW - Whitewater College of Business and Economics Spring 2014 Magazine.

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Page 1: The Value of Business

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CONTENTS

PUBLISHER Christine Clements, Dean College of Business and Economics 262-472-1343 • [email protected]

MANAGING EDITOR Ben Jones

CONTRIBUTING WRITER Jeff Angileri ’06

ART DIRECTOR Joy Yang ’98, ’06

GRAPHIC DESIGNER Jason Jasinski ’05

PHOTOGRAPHER Craig Schreiner

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Eric Compas B. Pragnanand Sameer Prasad Piti A Sahakorn

On the Cover: In an area of northern Thailand, new business models are growing a brighter future. Opium production has been wiped out, replaced by other industries such as tea cultivation. UW-Whitewater students visited this region to research these sustainable business practices.

Photo by Piti A Sahakorn

Whitewater magazine is published once per year. Whitewater magazine is not printed with state funding.

The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. We promote excellence through diversity and encourage all quali-fied individuals to apply.

With lessons that start on campus and extend around the world, UW-Whitewater helps students become ethical leaders who see business as a way to create wealth while improving society.

photo by Eric Compas

4 A HIGHER STANDARD

26 THE $100,000 QUESTION

18 MAKING WAVES

12 SUPPLY CHAIN SALVATION

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34 INSPIRATIONAL SPACES

30 CHANGING PERCEPTIONS

a photo essay by Craig Schreiner

2 | From the Dean

15 | A greater good

23 | The next level

STAY CONNECTED

CONTENTS

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youtube.com/UWWCoBE

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ome of you may have seen the following quotation written on the wall near the south entrance of Hyland Hall, home of the College of Business and Economics:

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”

– Anne Frank

This quotation is particularly meaningful to me because it resonates with conversations I’ve had with people in and out of the college about the value of business.

Business is a social institution that adds tremendous value to our world. I’m surprised by the number of individuals who believe that profit is the sole objective of business. It is true that economic vitality is critical for long-term sustainability. I recently heard someone from the not-for-profit world comment that unless not-for-profits learn how to operate more like for-profits they aren’t going to be around long. But most for-profit organizations also understand that the best indicator of long-term health and viability is their ability to meet the triple bottom line: economic, social and environmental sustainability; and their priorities, policies and practices are designed to achieve all three of these ends.

As you will see in the articles in this magazine, the tools of effective business help us understand such things as how to develop leaders who have both skill and integrity, how to grow

the economic base of a community, how to enhance learners’ critical and analytical skills for sound decision-making, and how to get the right things to the right place at the right time. In our college, business faculty and students work together with the community writ large to understand the problems of our times and to explore solutions.

A sense of purpose is a powerful, motivating source, and disengagement comes in part from not really understanding how what we do makes a difference. Business is an honorable profession that provides each of us with the opportunity to make a profound difference in the world. Our commitment to this goal is perhaps best expressed in one of our five college strategic objectives: The College will uphold the belief that business is a noble profession with a tremendous capacity to do good in the world. We will instill high standards of ethical and professional conduct in our students, faculty and staff. We will support an agenda which includes activities and curriculum related to professional integrity, sustainable business, social responsibility, globalization and social entrepreneurship.

Our students should leave UW-Whitewater as ambassadors of our programs, prepared to do well by doing good. Please enjoy reading about the ways we strive to develop strong connections between professional skills and knowledge and opportunities to have an impact.

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DEAN’S LETTERBY CHRISTINE CLEMENTS, DEAN COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS

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RISING TO THECHALLENGE

UW-Whitewater students had a strong showing in the College Fed Challenge, held Nov. 25 at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Working as a team, the students

presented an analysis of economic data and demonstrated their knowledge in an open question-and-answer session. UW-Whitewater placed third in competition,

finishing just behind Northwestern University and The University of Chicago.

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he University of Wisconsin-Whitewater’s vision of business extends far beyond the bottom line.

Businesses have a unique ability to engage in the world and help solve significant social problems. According to Dean Christine Clements, in so many ways, business helps make the world a better place.

“Since the 2008 recession, the greed and self-interest of business have been common topics in the news and popular press,” she said. “It is too easy to lose track of the critical contributions business makes to improve our world by developing and managing principled business organizations; providing the capacity to run effective and efficient not-for-profit organizations and social initiatives; developing and making available products that address critical human concerns; and generating wealth that can improve quality of life throughout the world.”

For the business world to accomplish these important ambitions, it must have the vision of strong leaders who operate with ethics and integrity.

UW-Whitewater’s College of Business and Economics strives to create these leaders.

The college outlines its core values in a student code of conduct that places focus on personal and professional integrity, a commitment to serve and a commitment to develop a sense of community, respect for diversity and a global perspective.

The words in the code come to life in the bright learning spaces of Timothy J. Hyland Hall, where faculty help students grow and develop into ethical leaders who hold the ability to enrich not only themselves, but also the world.

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A HIGHER STANDARDby BEN JONES photos by CRAIG SCHREINER

Developing students into leaders who validate the power of good business

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Andrew Ciganek, an assistant professor of information technology and supply chain management, wants his students to gain the ability to adapt and thrive when confronted with challenge.

“You are going to be faced with difficult situations,” he said.

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Learning for these students takes place in many ways. It happens in mentoring relationships that bolster the success of minority students. It happens in college organizations that provide opportunities for growth through real-world projects that sometimes succeed and sometimes don’t. And it happens in the interactions between seasoned business professionals and university students taking important steps toward success.

All of these experiences help students succeed in a competitive labor market – success that can be measured in the jobs students acquire, the financial rewards they reap, and the personal satisfaction they earn as what they do helps others.

But they also help shape an enduring trait the college is proud to see in so many of its departing students.

They are leaders.

InspIrIng Early succEss: thE mEntorIng program

Some students are natural leaders who gravitate toward leadership roles. Others need a little encouragement.

A new mentoring program, labeled Building Business Leaders, ensures students from all backgrounds become effective business leaders. The program works to retain students of color while helping them gain key skills to navigate an unfamiliar academic landscape.

The program, said Director Freda Briscoe, targets freshman and sophomore students of color, providing them with a meaningful faculty mentoring relationship that offers the potential for collaborative research opportunities.

“Some of the students lack confidence,” Briscoe said. “I think that once their confidence is up, they are better able to see their potential.”

Nandi Hambrick, one of the new mentees, now sees herself as a researcher. The freshman marketing major from Madison has been meeting weekly with a professor and is now contemplating her own research project.

“I didn’t think I would be even talking about this,” she said. “Trust me.”

The mentoring program complements the college’s existing diversity support programs, including the Multicultural Business Program and the Summer Business Institute, which targets incoming students.

UW-Whitewater freshman Nandi Hambrick, left, never thought she would be contemplating a research project. With guidance from her mentor, marketing professor Carol Scovotti, right, she now is.

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Freda Briscoe directs a new mentoring program at UW-Whitewater, Building Business Leaders. Briscoe is a longtime advocate for first-generation and underrepresented students. Her leadership has drawn wide recognition, and in 2013 she won the University of Wisconsin System Academic Staff Excellence Award.

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opportunItIEs to sErvE: how studEnts EngagE

Many lessons of ethical business leadership at UW-Whitewater happen outside class. Jimmy Peltier, professor of marketing, said the strength of the student business organizations is one of the college’s calling cards. More than 25 active student organizations provide students with leadership and service opportunities.

“From the American Marketing Association, to Pi Sigma Epsilon (a fraternal marketing organization) to DECA (an international marketing association) and to student organizations all across the college, their success is almost unmatched,” Peltier said.

UW-Whitewater’s American Marketing Association chapter, which Peltier advises, has won International Chapter of the Year four out of the last five years.

The new mentoring program started in September 2013 with 25 students, who were paired with faculty mentors. After an initial orientation, mentors and mentees met and communicated throughout the semester.

As a first-semester student, Hambrick became involved in business communications research. She said she has a good relationship with her mentor, Carol Scovotti, an associate professor of marketing.

Matthew Winden, an assistant professor of economics, said he talks with his mentee about everything from career planning to how to achieve future goals to family life. Winden said the program helps students and faculty members develop deeper relationships.

“It’s designed to give these students a person to discuss any issue with and to learn from,” he said. “Because of these relationships, students are exposed to more opportunities to learn and can demonstrate leadership skills in the university.”

Eric Roche, coordinator of a New Student Seminar Course that’s part of an “Everybody’s Business” learning community, helps students embrace ethical leadership through service. One project raised funds for a wheelchair users’ camp.

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“We are training students to become leaders,” Peltier said. “That’s why our student chapters do so well. We instill in them the importance of being leaders and we train them from a communications standpoint, from an ethical standpoint, from a motivational standpoint and from a supervisory standpoint.”

In student organizations, just as in the business world, sometimes things don’t go well. Problems can, and do, arise.

While difficult, Peltier said these issues are rich learning experiences for students.

“It’s easy to be a leader when you are successful, and we tend to have a lot of that,” Peltier said. “But in a chapter there are failures every day.

“These students are working to overcome failures, learn from them, and lead others.”

Robert Boostrom, an assistant professor of marketing who advises Pi Sigma Epsilon, said members of student organizations gain these leadership skills while working on projects that give back to society.

“(Giving back) is part of the message and part of what they learn as leaders in our organizations,” he said.

For over a decade, PSE has launched a bicycle race each spring, which draws more than 100 racers to Whitewater. Students from the organization take on key tasks that make the race successful, handling everything from registrations to directing cyclists on the country roads.

Perhaps most importantly, students have used the races to raise thousands of dollars for charity.

The students document their work in a detailed report to the national PSE organization and compete with other service projects from around the country in a contest at the annual PSE convention.

Linda Amann, a lecturer in the accounting department, said the students she advises in the Institute of Management Accountants chapter volunteer as tutors and gather clothes for the disadvantaged.

“Students learn that it’s not all about them, and that it’s time to give back and do things for others,” she said.

Frank Lanko, a senior business career advisor and DECA advisor, said the college works hard to help promote its opportunities to students.

“It’s great, developmentally, for them,” Lanko said. “And, we hear from employers that it is one of the things they are consistently looking for, not just on a resume, but as a point of differentiation in an interview situation.”

Lanko said he often talks to students about how there’s a big difference between involvement and active involvement.

“You don’t have to be the president but if you’ve engaged in activities, community service projects, campus projects and competitions, you have a better story to sell and hopefully have gained some new skills that you didn’t have before,” he said.

Stephanie Wilson, a senior human resources management major, said the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) became an important extension of her education. She started as a general member but eventually became the group’s president. She said business community leaders share human resources knowledge with the group and suggest career paths. Competitions help students further increase their knowledge of the human resources field. She said she would not be as far on her career path if it were not for these organization experiences.

“SHRM taught me what I knew couldn’t be taught in the classroom,” she said. “SHRM made me a leader.”

classroom InspIratIon: profEssors, busInEss lEadErs sharE wIsdom

Business has a powerful role to better society and professors and business leaders share these lessons with UW-Whitewater business students.

Sameer Prasad, a management professor, works with students on supply chain solutions to world problems. Prasad said he helps students discover tangible ways they can make people’s lives better.

“The rich can take good care of themselves,” Prasad said. “But the weakest and most vulnerable of whichever county or state, if we can make their lives better through what we do, we’ve done our mission.”

We are training students to become

leaders. That’s why our student

chapters do so well. – Jimmy Peltier

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Prasad’s projects take aim at problems like health, sanitation and poverty.

“I think business often times gets a bad rap because there’s a profit in it,” said Ben Blahnik, one of Prasad’s former students. “But business does a lot of good in the world.”

Praveen Parboteeah, director of the Doctorate of Business Administration Program, said that about seven years ago, campus leaders decided the ethics discussion on campus needed to be deepened.

Parboteeah said the college developed a code of conduct for students and launched a course about the social responsibility of business, now a requirement for management majors.

“There’s been so much of this infused in so many of the disciplines,” he said. “The big question is, do you offer a stand-alone course, or do you have it be in everything?

“What we see is all classes, to some degree, have coverage of ethics.”

Incoming students get early lessons in service leadership in a New Student Seminar course that’s part of an “Everybody’s Business” learning community. Coordinator Eric Roche, a senior advisor in the college, said it gives business majors a chance to better understand their strengths and weaknesses as they learn how to become business leaders.

Students learn these lessons through service leadership, business organization involvement and team-oriented activities.

Some students learn these lessons locally, through a bully prevention program the students hold at a local elementary school. Other students learn lessons far from campus. In March 2014, a group traveled to Albany, Ga., for a Habitat for Humanity alternative spring break trip. In the past, students raised thousands of dollars for Camp Dreams, which provided scholarships for a camp for wheelchair users and a camp for students with severe speech impairments.

Roche said he tries to instill in his students what it means to give, what it means to learn about social causes, and how that knowledge translates to ethical reasoning in the business world.

“Exemplary leadership practices, good strong social skills and service experiences are a great foundation for being a successful person in business,” he said.

Over the last two years, Andrew Ciganek, an assistant professor of information technology and supply chain management, has led 45 students on a study trip to Thailand.

Ciganek has taught MBA classes as a visiting professor at Assumption University in Bangkok and forged relationships

that helped facilitate UW-Whitewater’s study program. After completing an intensive course about sustainability and Thai culture, students explore international models of economic, environmental and social sustainability.

In Thailand, they get an in-depth look at various business models that are bettering that part of the world in innovative ways.

For example, in the northern countryside of Thailand, an area once environmentally and socially decimated by the opium trade is now devoted to more sustainable practices, including the farming, harvesting, processing and selling of coffee.

“The thing that really gets me excited as a businessperson is what went into changing that area,” Ciganek said. “They wanted to address some of the root causes of the problem of why they were producing opium.

“They reforested a lot of the land and left some of the land for growing sustainable crops.”

Ciganek said the main lesson he wants to impart on his students is the ability to adapt.

“You are going to be faced with difficult situations,” he said. “This is just a really good case where students can see the different opportunities that are available to them if they look.”

Leaders from the business world are a key part of UW-Whitewater’s success, working with students in and out of the classroom to develop business and leadership skills.

Cheryl Vanden Burgt, a financial representative with Northwestern Mutual, said her company has a relationship with UW-Whitewater that stretches more than three decades. It recently began a new level of involvement, sponsoring a sales competition.

“Students are actually getting real-world exposure to the sales cycle language and direct feedback and coaching in a way you wouldn’t get through books in the classroom,” she said.

Dan Herlache, district marketing manager at Federated Mutual Insurance Company, said that in addition to fine-tuning their skills through these co-curricular activities, students build relationships with potential employers.

“I go to other schools throughout the state and I don’t see any school that gets the employers as involved as Whitewater,” he said.

Max Traynor, a senior marketing major, said these opportunities are valuable and prepare him for the challenges ahead.

“We’re not just learning from a book,” Traynor said.

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valuE ahEad: thE approach works

The degree to which UW-Whitewater business students can better the world begins on campus.

“All students who graduate with bachelor’s degrees in business from UW-Whitewater must have completed at least twenty hours of community service work,” said Associate Dean and Professor of Marketing Lois Smith. “Many have done much more, whether in class projects or part of their student organization experiences. Last year’s graduating CoBE seniors reported in a survey that they volunteered for groups such as elementary schools, libraries, parks, nursing homes, churches, Habitat for Humanity, humane societies and fundraisers for not-for-profit organizations.

“The impact that these activities have on the community is tremendous, and their work is a real source of pride and an opportunity for learning and giving,” Smith said.

Lanko said students who obtain leadership skills on campus – through work and volunteer experience and service in student organizations – leave UW-Whitewater prepared to do well in the world.

He said it’s important for outgoing students to be able to understand the value of their education and the skills they have acquired and be able to communicate that success effectively to employers.

“As a whole we do a pretty good job with leadership education,” Lanko said. “It’s up to the students to apply it.”

UW-Whitewater students traveled to northern Thailand in 2014 to explore innovative and sustainable business models that are transforming a part of the world that has been ravaged by environmental problems and the opium trade.

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SUPPLY CHAIN SALVATION

ameer Prasad uses the powerful tools of supply chain management to improve the income, health and education of people in the developing world.

It’s an important mission that starts with an important lesson: don’t waste a poor man’s time.

“A poor person’s time is more valuable than a rich person’s time,” said Prasad, a professor of management. “I know rich people are busy, but when you are a marginal person and you say, ‘can I take a half hour of your time?’” that half hour might mean that they have to forgo some income.

“It’s a big deal.”That’s just one lesson Prasad, a native of India who grew up

in Italy, has learned and shared as he’s tackled global problems with his students.

Prasad uses his classroom on the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater campus to solve problems in far-away places, like villages in rural India. The problems Prasad attacks are difficult to solve, which is exactly what make them good experiences for his students, who will face a complicated world after graduation.

“The idea here is to provide unstructured situations that are complex,” Prasad said. “Many (other) courses students take are very structured, with multiple choice tests. That’s not the way I operate.

“Instead of saying, ‘this is the content,’ I give them the material and they have to come up with solutions to real-world problems.”

Prasad said students find this approach challenging, but the experience pays off.

“They get good internships, good jobs and they start companies,” he said.

socIal problEms, supply chaIn solutIons

Prasad said supply chain management is about bringing in the right supplies at the right time at the right cost.

“Let’s say you are in this remote village and you are providing food to the kids. Well, you have to make sure the food is there, the fuel is there, the people are there, the fuel needs to be transported and people need to be transported.”

Prasad said all of this is part of a big chain. He said the supply chain concept can help the nonprofit world, just as it helps businesses succeed.

“It’s the same concept,” he said.Prasad said supply chain management brings powerful

benefits to the world.“In one of the hurricanes that hit India recently, about

20 people died,” he said. “That’s because they moved about a million people inland. Now, just imagine the logistics to move a million people. But 10 or 20 years ago they weren’t as sophisticated and 10,000 people would have died.

“And 30 or 40 years ago when they didn’t have any information, 100,000 people would have died.”

Sameer said that sound supply chain management helps people in the nonprofit world do good work.

“It’s not a matter of somebody saying, ‘well, let’s get medicine or food to the poor,’” he said. “Unless you solve the supply chain problem, it won’t work.”

For example, Prasad said his students worked with a Swiss-based Nongovernmental Organization (NGO) in 2011 on strategies to help a dried fish processing operation become profitable. The project hoped to help people living in poverty with an operation that processed fish into a dried snack, but it was losing money.

Sby BEN JONES photos by CRAIG SCHREINER

Professor challenges students to tackle global problems with business solutions

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Management Professor Sameer Prasad helps students explore how supply chain management can lift people out of poverty, clean the environment and save lives.

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UW-Whitewater students worked with a Swiss-based NGO to help a dried fish operation become profitable to assist people in a poverty-stricken area of India.

Sameer’s students analyzed the operation and developed a model to optimize production.

Students examined various elements, including the different types of fish processed, the processing costs and market costs and the quality of the operation’s suppliers.

“(One) person brought the fish in cheaper, but we believed it was inferior quality,” Prasad said. “You had to throw more of it away. So one of our recommendations was to source the fish directly.”

Other projects Prasad said his students have tackled have aimed to improve the health and income of “rag pickers” in the developing world; improve rural education and reduce malnutrition in the developing world and use bamboo plantings as a strategy to treat “gray water,” providing income and fuel to impoverished communities.

Prasad said many of his students come from communities near Whitewater and these situations and problems are foreign to the students.

“That is a challenge,” he said. “The reason why we provide that (experience) is our students are going to work in this global environment,” he said. “It’s all a matter of getting students outside their comfort zones.”

Ben Blahnik, one of Prasad’s former students, found himself developing a model that projected the potential biomass value of bamboo when used in a fencing application in India.

Blahnik said that in India, people use concrete block walls to stake out property boundaries. He was part of a Prasad-led team that developed a model that would provide fencing that was

cheaper while providing a revenue source for people in India.Blahnik worked on a growth model for bamboo to be used in

a hybrid bamboo/barbed wire fence. He published the research with Prasad in 2013.

“It basically calculated what the expected return of biomass was,” he said. “We were looking to use the bamboo as fuel and generate revenue with energy resources.”

The project went beyond theoretical models. The students presented their findings to India Development Service, a nonprofit organization that later incorporated the fencing at one of their properties.

Blahnik said the project allowed him to develop a variety of new skills.

“It was a really good opportunity to work closely with a professor, work closely with some students in a group to get a group effort coordinated,” he said.

Prasad does extensive background work to help these projects succeed. He has worked individually for years to make connections to help execute these international projects.

Recently, he traveled to Ireland and Italy and met with United Nations employees about the World Food Program.

“These companies, these universities and nonprofits are very busy,” he said. “They have to have a relationship with faculty. If we just show up, nobody is going to do anything (to work with us). You also have to provide value. With all of these projects we try to provide something valuable.

“This is real research.”

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t’s not easy to measure opportunity or quantify dreams, but two University of Wisconsin-Whitewater professors are working to do just that.

Russell Kashian, professor of economics, and Richard McGregory, assistant vice chancellor for multicultural affairs and student success, authored groundbreaking research in 2013 that examines the double bottom line of minority banks. These institutions, the professors discovered, offer better rates than other banks, providing a lifeline in communities that desperately need support.

“These minority-owned banks are on the side of the angels because they are stepping into the marketplace that basically everyone else has stepped away from,” said Kashian, who directs UW-Whitewater’s Fiscal and Economic Research Center (FERC). “We have the traditional bottom line, which is the profit that we make.

“But we also have the double bottom line, which is the social good.”

Kashian has gained wide recognition for his research into subjects that often get inadequate attention. For example, he’s researched the effects of cultivating cranberries and sweet corn on the Wisconsin economy and measured how efficient universities across the nation are at delivering success in NCAA Division III athletics.

Kashian said his focus on minority banks is part of a larger effort on campus to be more inclusive, an effort that extends to campus research.

Kashian said that with McGregory, who holds a doctoral degree in economics and is also a lecturer in the Department of Economics, he first embarked on grant-funded research that compared the racial makeup of UW-Whitewater relative to other campuses.

Kashian said it was a natural research extension to examine industry and for-profit performance.

“When you start saying, ‘how do we do?’ Then you start asking, ‘how do banks do?’” he said.

Kashian and McGregory’s research examined CD rates from thousands of commercial and savings banks in the United States between 2002 and 2011. It found minority-owned banks consistently paid higher interest rates than non-minority-owned banks.

For example, on a 12-month CD, black-owned banks paid on average .489 percentage points higher than non-minority owned banks. Asian-owned banks exceeded non-minority-owned banks by .308 percent. Other minority banks, including those owned by women, Native Americans and Hispanics, paid .354 points above non-minority-owned banks.

why It mattErs

Kashian said these banks are important assets to their communities.

“The way to grow a community is first to spend that money inside the community,” he said. “Eventually, all money leaks out. But give it one chance to cycle inside the community before it leaks out.

“The importance of community businesses, not just black-owned or minority businesses, is they give money the chance to circulate within the community first.”

McGregory said these banks offer the potential to provide significant help to the economy.

“When you talk about small, minority-owned businesses, they could have a significant impact on the unemployment picture,” McGregory said. “If we could get them to grow enough, where they would each add one or two additional employees, over time that could have a significant impact.”

Kashian said minority-owned banks may be less profitable than other banks because they are often located in

IA GREATER GOOD

by BEN JONES photos by CRAIG SCHREINER

Researchers find minority-owned bank value extends beyond profits

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economically-challenged neighborhoods. But he said the banks earn a double bottom line of profit and social good.

Michael Grant, president of the National Bankers Association, said the UW-Whitewater research makes an important point.

“It proves that these banks are not only providing a service that some of the bigger banks don’t want to provide, but are doing it in a way that’s more profitable and makes better financial sense for the customers,” he said.

Grant said little recent research has been published on this topic.“What they have done is pretty groundbreaking,” he said. In September, Kashian presented the research to a national audience

at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation in Washington. During that event – part of a campaign to strengthen the economy in black communities – the foundation announced a $5 million investment in African-American banking institutions.

Ron Busby, president and CEO of U.S. Black Chamber, Inc., said the top concern of the 240,000 businesses his group represents is access to capital.

A small corner shop may forever remain just that unless it can borrow money to expand.

Busby said UW-Whitewater’s research speaks to the value of banks that provide these funds.

“The more data we can have that’s turned into information that speaks specifically to the concerns of those business owners is only going to be helpful,” he said.

McGregory said the research was a good fit for the UW-Whitewater campus. In fact, he said students asked for a greater focus in the curriculum on inclusive excellence issues and topics.

“But they didn’t want it just in the general diversity classes,” he said. “They wanted it close to their majors.”

McGregory said the university has worked to meet that need in its curriculum and co-curriculum, in classes like the economics of discrimination and in research that students undertake with faculty.

“And then how do you include a more diverse set of students into what you are doing?” he said. “For years, FERC has been doing some great projects and we have been doing a good job over time of integrating more students from underrepresented backgrounds into the work of FERC.”

Kashian said students are looking for experience that extends beyond a simple diversity class.

“What does this mean to my life, a little closer to where I live, in my profession, where I am going?” he said.

Derrek Grunfelder-McCrank, a senior finance and economics major, has been working with Kashian on research that examines the assets of minority-owned banks and how factors in the region relate to their performance.

“It’s definitely worthwhile research,” Grunfelder-McCrank said. “People pay attention to this and it has real-world implications.”

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Richard McGregory, assistant vice chancellor for multicultural affairs and student success, left, and Russell Kashian, professor of economics, authored research that discovered the significant value that minority-owned banks offer to economically challenged communities.

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rom a vantage point five stories high in a converted warehouse on Milwaukee’s south side, UW-Whitewater student Chesten Kesselhon gazes through a window at the skyline, his enthusiasm

as bright as the sun’s reflection on the river below.“It’s an exciting time to be here. It’s amazing that this place exists,” he said.

“People are coming here to solve the world’s water issues. Ideas can easily become reality.”

The “place” is the Global Water Center, borne from a vision to make southeast Wisconsin a hub for freshwater research, education and economic development. It’s a unique collaboration, a confluence of the brightest water thinkers in business, academics and government. The goals: new ideas, new jobs.

Constructed in 1904, and newly renovated, the 98,000-square-foot historic warehouse is in an area undergoing revitalization. The neighborhood is bordered by the Milwaukee, Menomonee and Kinnickinnic rivers, and is a short walk from Lake Michigan. Appropriately, the city renamed the street “Freshwater Way.”

UW-Whitewater’s suite, on the fifth floor of the building, is called the Institute for Water Business – a place where all of the campus’ water-minded folks can network, generate new ideas and conduct research.

Kesselhon, a senior integrated science-business major, is one of several students working there. He is exploring aquaponics – growing crops and fish together in a symbiotic environment. It’s known as a highly sustainable food production alternative, using no soil, and only a fraction of the water typically used for crops.

“You start with cool water yellow perch. Waste from the fish adds nutrients to the water, gets filtered, and then sent into the tank where beds of lettuce are growing,” he said.

Jake Fincher, also a senior integrated science-business major, is Kesselhon’s partner on the project. “There’s just so much potential for new applications in aquaponics,” he said. “We’re wondering where else this can go.”

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MAKING WAVESby JEFF ANGILERI photos by CRAIG SCHREINER

UW-Whitewater joins region in solving world water issues

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Chesten Kesselhon, a senior integrated science-business major, is researching aquaponics in UW-Whitewater’s new suite in the Global Water Center in Milwaukee.

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ImmErsEd In watEr knowlEdgE, ExpErIEncE

In a world where every drop of water counts, UW-Whitewater students are asking important questions. And there’s no better place to find answers than the Global Water Center – where a constant stream of university professors, business professionals and students are flowing in one physical space.

“It’s an amazing dynamic. Whatever topic you’re interested in, someone in that building knows about it or has connections,” said Fincher. “I’m an undergrad and I can walk up to a CEO of one the largest companies in Wisconsin and have a conversation.”

There is value in having a physical presence at the center. Digital communication doesn’t allow for serendipitous meetings.

“Last night, I saw two entrepreneurs cross paths in the lobby. They found out they had exactly what the other was looking for,” said Linda Reid, associate professor of business law and director of UW-Whitewater’s Institute for Water Business. “Last week, a business owner was looking for people with market analysis experience. As it turned out, I had four students right there who could help.”

These collaborations need to happen fast if societies are to overcome imminent water challenges, among them geographic conflicts, shortages, pollution and climate change.

The challenges underscore the importance of producing business graduates who are water-literate.

“If someone is working in the finance office at MillerCoors, they need to understand water quality, availability, and how it affects bottom line,” Reid said. “There are nonprofits that need people who understand science and are able to keep them afloat.”

Major companies have noticed UW-Whitewater’s dynamic science-business curriculum, including Veolia Water North America – one of the largest water supply and wastewater companies in the world, and a Global Water Center tenant.

“We hire UW-Whitewater graduates because they have the skills and knowledge to succeed in the industry,” said Scott Royer, president and general manager of Veolia Milwaukee.

UW-Whitewater students are taking advantage of invaluable travel study experiences. Kesselhon spent three weeks in Ireland studying water product distribution. In Thailand, he and Fincher explored the environmental, economic and political impacts of a dam on the Mekong River. In May, Fincher

Linda Reid directs UW-Whitewater’s Institute for Water Business, which helps connect students with invaluable water research and career opportunities in this critical industry.

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UW-Whitewater’s physical presence in Milwaukee’s Global Water Center helps students forge connections and collaborations with water business entrepreneurs and researchers.

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will head to Iceland and Norway to learn about ballast and wastewater. A 2015 trip to the Panama Canal will explore global water shipping issues.

“It’s amazing how quickly UW-Whitewater was able to globalize a program,” said Joyce Harms, communications and community relations manager at Veolia Milwaukee. “That is so important because an international issue requires global knowledge. And we need to move. We can’t wait four years to react.”

a pErsonal stakE

When you walk into the Global Water Center, ask anybody – a faculty member, student or entrepreneur – where their passion comes from, and you’ll often hear a similar backstory: a love of the water.

Kesselhon, from East Troy, grew up fishing, wake boarding and water skiing on Lake Beulah.

“I appreciate clean lakes and water,” he said. “The Global Water Center hits the sweet spot for everything I need to know to make that possible from a business perspective.”

“Growing up I wanted to be a marine biologist. I couldn’t be pulled away from the fishing dock,” said Fincher, who grew up near the shores of Paddock Lake in Kenosha County. “After graduating from UW-Whitewater, my plan is to go to graduate school. I want to give a voice to the less powerful, and set up a framework to solve international conflicts over this natural resource.”

Reid shares the same passion for sustainability with her students, and says it’s gratifying to see their enthusiasm.

“I feel privileged to work with these students,” Reid said. “They’re bright. They’re tenacious. They care about their communities. People forget what lakes mean to the state and country as far as fresh drinking water and recreation. These students understand the value.”

UW-Whitewater works to stay on the edge of water business field. It formally opened for business in the Global Water Center in September 2013.

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THE NEXT LEVEL

s leaders in the College of Business and Economics explored adding a high-quality doctorate to the college’s portfolio of offerings, they knew they had the talented professors and quality resources to launch a program.

But was there significant demand in the region for Doctor of Business Administration degree recipients?

The college found a strong market for the program’s proposed offering. According to data from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International), the premier accrediting agency for business schools, there is robust demand for doctoral faculty.

“We have the people, we have the resources. But of course that won’t work if there is no market for it,” said Praveen Parboteeah, director of the new program. “When we looked at the data, we found there’s very high demand for professors with doctorates in business, and industry is also looking to hire people with doctorates.

“The market analysis showed that.” UW-Whitewater has an existing enrollment of about 12,000,

including 1,100 post-graduate students. There are two UW

A System campuses in the region that also offer doctorate-level business programs. The University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee each offer Ph.D. programs.

But the UW-Whitewater DBA aims to offer something different. What distinguishes its new degree from regional Ph.D. programs is that it takes an applied focus and approach.

“(Other programs) are much more geared toward theoretical approaches,” Parboteeah said. “We wanted to do something that was much more practice-oriented.”

Students in UW-Whitewater’s DBA program will arrive at the school with the equivalent of a master’s degree in a business discipline, significant work experience and the desire to set themselves apart while moving their skills to another level.

“We are looking for people with years of experience, which they will bring with them into the program,” said John Chenoweth, associate dean of UW-Whitewater’s College of Business and Economics. “It’s a little different from your typical Ph.D. program, which often consists of people who have just finished master’s degrees or have limited work experience.”

by BEN JONES photos by CRAIG SCHREINER

New doctorate extends college’s reach while providing platform for excellence

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Praveen Parboteeah is directing the college’s new Doctorate of Business Administration program. Beginning in fall 2014, a first cohort will attend classes one weekend per month for two years and then spend a year on dissertation work.

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Parboteeah said the college hopes to offer new skills to people in industry that will help them better their careers.

“For example, we have the ability to provide people with data analysis skills, a crucial skill today,” he said.

Courses in the DBA include applied regression analysis, forecasting and time series analysis and applied multivariate methods. But the offerings extend far beyond high-level data courses.

“Marketing consultants can gain expertise from our incredible sales institute and great marketing faculty,” Parboteeah said. “And there are also people who would like to transition into an academic career.

“For them, we provide the expertise to write scholarly articles and do well in an academic environment.”

movIng forward

UW-Whitewater received approval for its DBA program from the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents in 2013 and subsequently received accreditation from the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, an agency that oversees accreditation in 19 states.

UW-Whitewater’s program is one of only a handful of AACSB International accredited Doctorate of Business Administration programs in the United States.

“We had to make a compelling argument that we were delivering something of quality,” Chenoweth said.

The program aims to accommodate working professionals, with classes running from Friday afternoon through Sunday afternoon once each month. Between classes, students will use an online learning platform to participate in discussions with faculty, submit assignments, and engage in other learning activities.

UW-Whitewater’s DBA is a 60-credit program that follows a cohort model. A first cohort of a maximum of 20 students will attend classes one weekend per month for two years and then spend a year on dissertation work.

sEEkIng qualIty cohort, outcomEs

UW-Whitewater’s DBA builds off exceptional existing undergraduate and multiple masters programs.

The application process for incoming students is rigorous and designed to establish a high-quality first cohort of 20 students.

After attending on-campus information sessions, students submit statements of interest and formal application materials to the program.

Faculty will review these materials and invite a group of prospective students to a research workshop.

Following the workshop, participants will submit a 12- to 15-page research proposal that the college will use to help select members for the first cohort.

“We are definitely looking at professional experience and some sort of leadership in industry,” Parboteeah said. “But we are also looking for faculty members who are employed in non-tenure track positions at other universities, who have professional experience and want a doctoral degree.”

UW-Whitewater’s DBA is designed as an interdisciplinary program.

“No matter what students’ interests are, they will get a broad depth of understanding and integration across all the disciplines,” Chenoweth said.

UW-Whitewater has already received strong interest in the program, with hundreds of people exploring the offering through informational sessions or communication with the college.

Parboteeah said students will typically take three to three and a half years to complete the program.

He said the school is eager and committed to seeing the new program succeed.

“We want it to do well, and we have the ability, resources, and faculty in place to accomplish our goals,” he said.

No matter what students’ interests are, they will get a broad

depth of understanding and integration across

all the disciplines.– John Chenoweth

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he greatest challenge for students in the Applied Investment Center isn’t discovering the right answers.

It’s discovering the right questions.Scott Opsal, a former business executive who teaches an applied investment

class, has no interest in getting students to simply memorize facts or only learn the mechanics of the industry tools that flash across the computer monitor screens that are arranged in pods throughout the center.

Opsal wants his students to become adept at asking the right questions about investments. That, he believes, will ultimately help them make sound, well-informed and ethical decisions in a world where definitive right or wrong answers frequently do not exist.

“It’s hard for students because they are used to professors asking them a question and there’s a right answer and a wrong answer,” Opsal said. “Well, in this class, there are no answers.

“It’s all opinion, how the market looks. Nobody knows.”That’s the challenge of the Applied Investment Center. Students here are

pushed outside of their comfort zones using real investment tools, real money and they make decisions with real consequences.

And they do all of this while dealing with real-world ethical considerations. It’s not easy, and neither is the real world they will face after graduation.

how thE class works

Opsal is a full-time finance lecturer who teaches investment-related classes, including securities analysis. He teaches students the mechanics of industry tools such as Bloomberg and Morningstar. UW-Whitewater is one of the few UW System institutions to offer an undergraduate applied investment program.

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THE $100,000 QUESTIONby BEN JONES photos by CRAIG SCHREINER

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Former business executive Scott Opsal teaches an applied investments class with the aim of challenging students to make sound and ethical decisions in an uncertain world.

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The program takes place in an investment center equipped with the latest industry tools, including 45 wide-screen monitor workstations that run industry-standard databases and educational software including Bloomberg, Morningstar, CRSP (Center for Research in Security Prices), Compustat and Financial Trading System.

Flanking the center is a sleek boardroom where students meet and make presentations at a long conference table.

The students act as portfolio managers, overseeing a mutual fund held by the UW-Whitewater Foundation.

“We have about $100,000 of real money in a brokerage account,” Opsal said. “The students basically act as portfolio managers.

“They spent the semester analyzing companies and putting together the investment story of a company,” Opsal said. “What’s the business about? How is the stock priced? What are the rates of return?”

After researching companies, students stand before a long conference table and present their findings. Their research faces the scrutiny of their classmates, who will decide whether or not to buy the stock.

“The students in the audience have to decide, did the students make a good cases for the stocks or not?” Opsal said. “Did they convince me the stocks are cheap? Should we put

them in the portfolio? And so, the students learn a lot of business skills doing that, besides investment skills: teamwork, decision making, presentation skills, how to lay out a story, all kinds of things.”

At any time, the fund contains 30 stocks. Students track the performance of each stock and make changes to the fund, as they deem necessary.

“If a student is looking at a health care stock, maybe the right question is, what is Obamacare going to do to the industry?” he said. “Or, if a student is looking at a bank stock, the right question is what do their loan losses look like? Are they on the upswing or downswing?”

Opsal said that ultimately, each company has a different set of right questions.

“Students have to learn how to figure those out, which is a great business skill,” Opsal said. “In the business world, the boss doesn’t usually know the right question or the right answer either. Students have to learn how to develop that themselves.”

The process requires students to follow a careful ethical path. “The basic issue with investment ethics is, you are dealing

with other people’s money,” he said. “Whenever you are dealing with other people’s money, there’s a risk that you put yourself ahead of them or you do something that’s good for you and your firm, but bad for the client.

The college’s Applied Investment Center features industry-standard technology and challenges students with growing a brokerage account used to help fund scholarships.

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“So we have a real focus on ethics that says the client comes first, the client’s investment success always comes first and you must put yourself second.”

Opsal said there are a thousand different ways to get into ethical trouble but he said avoiding problems is usually pretty simple: put the client first, be unbiased and be objective.

“The fact that we are selling advice as our product, it has to be trustworthy, it has to be ethical, and so the industry is self-policing,” Opsal said. “If I were to violate some rule, the CFA Institute would come and pull my license and basically say, ‘you can’t practice anymore, you can’t invest anymore.’”

Opsal said poor ethical decisions can inflict significant harm, not just on clients but the industry.

“We know that if clients don’t trust you to be fair and objective, they won’t give you their money,” he said. “The purpose of a code of ethics isn’t to stop the bad guys, because they are going to cheat and steal no matter what the code says.

“The code is there to keep honest people from accidentally going in the wrong direction.”

In Opsal’s class, students don’t take their responsibility lightly. Just as in the real world, there are ramifications to their decisions.

“I tell them in October, you have ownership of this fund,” Opsal said. “If it does well, that’s great, and if it doesn’t, it’s on you guys, too.

“You need to be working hard to make sure this fund grows and has a good return.”

Profits from the fund go to help pay scholarships and provide a bonus to the student with the best research paper.

Alumni and other donors have provided funds to establish the existing trading account and Opsal said fundraising is underway to grow the center’s efforts.

“We have alumni and donors who have put money into the fund for the specific reason that it gives students the chance to do this realistic, uncertain, decision-making process,” he said. “The money has been donated for the purpose of giving the students the opportunity to do this realistic business research.”

Opsal gives the students few parameters. The stocks must be U.S. exchange stocks and they have to be over a $2 billion market cap.

“But otherwise, generally it’s entirely up to us,” said Cody Baldus, a senior economics major from Dodgeville. “Whenever we find a company we want to pursue, we just do it on our own.”

With Collin Wisch, a senior finance major from West Allis, Baldus investigated the company Manpower.

“It’s real money and a real life experience,” Wisch said. “If you make a mistake, you lose.”

Baldus said that Manpower had strong growth in the last

year. The class opted to trim some of its holdings and use the proceeds to fund other investments.

Baldus said the open-ended nature of the class is challenging.“There are thousands of companies and we might spend a

couple weeks researching one and decide it’s not something we want to do anymore,” he said. “You just have to start from scratch.

“Or, we might come up with a report, and present it to the class, and even then after spending a couple weeks, the class might have a different opinion on it. The team might not agree with it. Then we go a different way.”

Wisch said the experience has been valuable.“I think we are a step above everyone else who hasn’t taken (the

class),” he said.Opsal says students struggle at first with the decisions they face.

He tells them to not worry about being right; focus on being well reasoned.

“Business is uncertain, the future is uncertain, so some decisions won’t work,” he said. “I want you to be confident that you made a well-thought-out decision. If you do that, then you have done the job right. “

The class tracks the performance of its fund relative to the Standard and Poor’s 500 index. Last year it was five percent higher than the index, a fantastic year for the fund, Opsal said.

At the end of the school year, in May, students give presentations to the foundation board and the finance department advisory board. They get practice in client presentations and learn how to put together a 30-minute review for a client.

The questions students asked last year led them to bet on the economy improving. They purchased stock in pro-cyclical companies.

“Their strategy last year paid off,” Opsal said. “This year now, we’ll see.”

The client’s investment success always comes

first and you must put yourself second.

– Scott Opsal

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here’s a stereotype of a salesman that does little to attract students to a career in sales.

You may have seen him on television. He’s selling used cars and he’s wearing a polyester tie. He’s crooked, unethical and he’s out to make a buck at any cost.

“The perceptions are totally out of whack, not aligned with reality,” said Jimmy Peltier, professor of marketing and director of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Institute for Sales Excellence.

The new institute is showing students that selling is a rewarding and profitable career path. It’s forging partnerships with businesses to help prepare a new generation of successful and ethical leaders. Students who participate in the institute gain marketable skills and learn that leaders in the sales industry do not trade in dishonesty any more than they wear bad polyester ties.

“Our job is to change perceptions,” Peltier said. “The institute demonstrates to students that sales isn’t dirty work and there are great career opportunities.”

The institute formally launched in September 2012 with the aim of bringing students and employers together in a mutually beneficial environment. The college already had well-established professional selling courses. It added a professional selling emphasis and brought forward more resources to help students develop strong sales skills.

Those skills provide students with new opportunities and meet a market demand.

“There is a tremendous shortage of salespeople,” Peltier said. “Part of the reason for the shortage is because a lot of students don’t think of sales as a career path.”

Peltier said Georgetown University research found the majority of college marketing majors later work in sales occupations.

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CHANGING PERCEPTIONSby BEN JONES photos by CRAIG SCHREINER

Institute helps students find new skills while discovering value in sales

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Jimmy Peltier, center, is director of the Institute for Sales Excellence. The institute features spaces wired with cameras to help students sharpen their presentation skills.

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While the college has long offered sales courses, the institute aims to help students further develop skills while learning from and making connections with potential employers.

“We added extra-curricular activities to the mix in order to augment our coursework with some real high-contact initiatives that are student-employer focused,” Peltier said.

Peltier said the institute has gotten off to a great start.“We have gone from having nothing, to having – in this year

alone – a professional selling certificate program and a retail sales management certificate program run by the institute,” Peltier said. “In the spring, we have a financial services certificate plan that’s run by the institute.

“We also have a business-to-business sales certificate run out of the institute, planned for spring.”

In the 2012-13 academic year alone, 755 students participated in one or more institute activities.

honIng skIlls

The institute uses technology to help students sharpen their sales skills. The institute features five new role-playing rooms wired with integrated cameras that record students during sales simulations. Students can upload the videos of their performances online or onto thumb drives for critique.

“The beautiful thing is you can watch your own role play,” said Shannon Cummins, assistant professor of marketing and associate director of the institute. “You can see your own nervous ticks or what areas you need to improve on.”

The institute also helps students sharpen their skills through internal and external sales competitions.

Students have come from as far away as California State University, Chico and North Carolina State University to compete in competitions hosted at UW-Whitewater.

In turn, students from UW-Whitewater have competed in places including Northern Illinois University and UW-Eau Claire.

Cummins said students gain confidence from the competitions

as well as an introduction to different types of sales jobs.“I feel the competitions give the students real-world

exposure,” she said.Cummins said that through competition, students gain

critical thinking skills, communication and active listening skills. Students learn to ask good questions.

“They also learn how to present and carry themselves and how to think on their feet, because no sales call is like the last one,” she said.

Cummins said students also gain a solid ethical grounding from the institute.

“One of the biggest problems in sales is the perception of sales as being unethical,” she said. “It’s one of the contributing factors to students not pursuing sales careers, despite the fact that sales careers are so prevalent, available and well-paying compared to other opportunities for students when they graduate from college.

“All sales should be ethical and it’s something we talk about in all of our classes; how can we be ethical salespeople?”

busInEss connEctIons

Support from businesses has been key to the institute’s success. Businesses bring financial resources to the institute as well as deep expertise.

“They are committed to the cause,” Peltier said.Business leaders speak in classes and work with students

in sales competitions. These partners say there are important mutual benefits to being involved with the institute.

“I hire people coming out of college for sales positions and it was getting really hard to hire people for sales,” said Dan Herlache, district marketing manager at Federated Mutual Insurance Co. “The students weren’t very interested in it and they didn’t realize how many positions are out there that involve sales.

“We are very happy that the university decided to create this institute because it is really allowing us to stay on campus and recruit even more students than we were before.”

Kelly Jo Mischler, assistant channel manager, farm and agriculture at Milwaukee Electric Tool, said that everyone who wants to pursue a marketing career in her company starts in sales.

“We strongly believe that sales experience is important,” Mischler said. “It’s something that teaches you the basics of what your product is, who your customer is and the industry you are working in.”

The College Advisory Board of business professionals echoed these comments in a discussion session on skills that graduates needed for success. The group of top-level executives agreed that sales and negotiation skills are essential to any executive’s success. Everyone sells, regardless of the major or career involved.

One of the biggest problems in sales is the perception of sales as

being unethical.– Shannon Cummins

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Dean Christine Clements agrees.“The Sales Institute offers all students, regardless of major, an

opportunity to gain confidence and refine the professional soft skills they often struggle with,” she said.

Jobs ahEad

Ultimately, the institute is about helping students find the skills and connections they need to succeed in the workplace. Already it’s having an impact and is building on the college’s well-established track record of success.

“Virtually every student who wants to find a career in sales – who goes through any of these programs – gets hired well ahead of graduation,” Peltier said.

Kevin Femal, market sales manager at Cintas Corporation, said his company has had a good relationship with the college and that relationship has led to the company hiring numerous UW-Whitewater graduates for leadership roles.

“Half the managers or leaders at our location are from Whitewater,” he said. “We’ve had just an unbelievable amount of success having very motivated and ready people coming from Whitewater.”

Kyle Raml graduated in December with a marketing degree with a sales emphasis as well as a finance degree.

He said he decided to pursue the sales emphasis because of his experience with competitions and the institute’s sales certificate programs.

“I realized that there are a lot of great opportunities right out of school for sales,” he said. “After getting that experience and seeing the potential with sales careers, it’s what I could see myself in. The sales institute provides great opportunities for someone going into business.”

For Raml, opportunity came in the form of a job offer from W.E. Carlson, a distributor for the Rite-Hite Corporation. He accepted a job offer with the company before he received his diploma in December.

Dan Herlache, district marketing manager at Federated Mutual Insurance Co., works with students to develop sales skills. He said the Sales Institute has led to his company increasing recruitment on campus.

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Learning continues past sunset at Hyland Hall, a facility that features 180,000 square feet of educational space and classrooms equipped with the latest technology.

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INSPIRATIONALSPACES

Timothy J. Hyland Hall, home to the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater’s College of Business and Economics, opened in 2009 and has since helped shape

thousands of future leaders. More than 3,700 graduate and undergraduate business students learn and collaborate in light-filled spaces featuring quotations that embody yesterday’s wisdom and tomorrow’s promise.

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Above: The College of Business and Economics is a hub of activity at the UW-Whitewater. Hyland Hall features numerous areas used for formal and informal collaboration and study. Natural light illuminates a conversation between students Zaki Alrasassi, left, and Abdulaziz Alessa.

Above right: Inspirational quotations are distributed throughout Hyland Hall, forming a backdrop to learning, and personal and professional growth.

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university of wisconsin

whitewaterWhitewater magazine800 West Main StreetWhitewater, WI 53190

ATTENTION PARENTSIf the address label lists a son or daughter who no longer lives there, please send the correct address to the UW-Whitewater Alumni office (listed at the left) or go online at: http://www.uww.edu/alumni and under the Keep in Touch section, click on Update Your Information.

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Introducing

a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) degree