Exhilarated entrepreneurs
Holding a check the size of a golden retriever was exhilarating for Matt Antenucci ’13 and his teammates. “It was great to see how our hard work paid off,” he said. “Especially because we felt like the underdogs as the only student team.”
UD Wind Solutions was the only group made entirely of students invited to participate in the final round of the UD Business Plan Competition. The team of three entrepreneurship majors and three engineering majors placed fifth among a record-breaking 95 entries, winning $5,000.
The results were announced at the end of the annual Entrepreneurship Banquet April 10. Local entrepreneur Russell Gottesman of Commuter Advertising gave the keynote address.
“It may seem like the world is against you, but it’s not,” he told the crowd of students, staff and entrepreneurs. “To be a successful entrepreneur, you don’t give up and you fight through adversity.”
Dean McFarlin, chair of the management and marketing department, thanked everyone involved in the competition, the 11th largest of its kind in the United States. “It doesn’t happen by magic; it happens by the work of the people in the entrepreneurship program.”
Click here to see a list of the winners of the 2012 University of Dayton Business Plan Competition.
Battle of Ohio
The executives at UnderArmour come to you with a problem: how can they grow their business? You have one week to prepare. Go.
That was the hypothetical situation presented to 11 teams of operations management students from UD, Xavier University, the Ohio State University, Miami University, University of Cincinnati and Wright State University.
Co-sponsored by UD and Deloitte Consulting, the Battle of the Ohio Case Competition was the first such event the University has held. School of Business Administration professor John Kanet believed it was a success and plans to sponsor another one next year.
The battle was fought Feb. 10 at 1700 South Patterson. It was waged in two segments: each of the 11 teams gave an initial presentation in a secluded room to a panel of judges Friday morning; the top three teams moved on to the afternoon competition, which took place in front of a public audience.
Though neither team from UD made it to the final round, not all was lost. Senior operations management and marketing major Elizabeth Elisha said, “It was a lot of hard work, but I think I can say for my entire team that the hard work was definitely worth the experience.”
Wear This…Not That
On Wednesday, Feb. 8, Caitlin Krebs ’05 urged students to ditch their Dayton gear – but not because she’s a Xavier fan. She was instructing UD women how to dress for the job they aspire to.
Sweats to Suits: Bridging the Gap from Campus to Career is an informational and networking event March 13 for aspiring female professionals. As a pre-event kick-off, the planning committee hosted a Wear This…Not That fashion show in Kennedy Union Ballroom.
Instead of a typical fashion show of designer styles, Wear This…Not That centered around advising young women on how to dress in the workplace. Krebs gave useful tips, such as that it’s better to be overdressed than underdressed, and if you have to think twice about it, don’t wear it.
“An evening work reception is not the same as a night out at Tim’s,” Krebs informed the group.
Following the fashion show was an activity. Three teams of three were given a rack of clothes, a mannequin and a business scenario. Five minutes later, the most suitably dressed mannequin won – giving my team bragging rights for the rest of the night.
Katie Ma, a junior business major, was a student on the Wear This…Not That planning committee. She was inspired after attending last year’s Sweats to Suits event. “It was empowering seeing young professionals straight from college give tips and tricks on pursuing a dream career,” she said.
Registration for Sweats to Suits 2012 is open on Hire a Flyer, but spaces will fill up quickly. Committee planner Lisa Rismiller said, “The speakers want to help the next generation that comes behind them, and that’s all of you.”
Click the image to see more photos from the event.
Porch Reads and pizza
Typically when a professor asks if anyone has anything else to discuss within the last two minutes of class, the only responses are the sounds of notebooks dropping into backpacks and coats being zipped in anticipation of dismissal.
When Professor John McCombe asked that question last Wednesday, multiple students started talking. And no one even groaned.
Though in a Marianist Hall classroom on the evening of Feb. 1, the group of assembled students wasn’t there for a class. The students were there to participate in Porch Reads, an informal book discussion group sponsored by Roesch Library.
“The point is to get students to talk about books they read and hopefully enjoyed,” said Heidi Gauder, coordinator of research and instruction at Roesch. Started in 2005 and comprised of two book discussions a semester, Porch Reads is geared towards sophomores, but upperclassman can participate.
That day’s selection was Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand’s chronicle of American Louis Zamperini’s experience as a Japanese prisoner of war in World War II. The motives behind students’ participation included receiving the free book and their interest in the war.
The discussion was held, like many discussions amongst friends, over pizza and soda. “It’s just people talking and there’s no need to structure that,” Gauder said. “The only structure needed is plates and cups and napkins for the food and drinks.”
Though last week’s moderator is an English professor, McCombe said he didn’t want Porch Reads to feel like class. “In class we talk more about what it means; in here it’s about what we like,” he said.
The students liked Unbroken. The pizza was pretty good, too.
Five thousand dollar questions
The 38 participants were members of the 15 groups that had been chosen from the 95 entries in the competition to move on to the second round. Their elevator pitch was extended to five minutes, followed by five minutes of Q&A by five judges.
One group of three entrepreneurship majors presented an idea brainstormed in Kettering Labs – small-scale wind turbines. “The Q&A was the scariest part, not knowing what you’re going to be asked,” Matt Antenucci ’13 said. His teammates agreed.
Ben Oren ’12, who presented on the restaurant opportunity Sabi Sushi, had the opposite opinion. The presentation had him nervous that he would forget to say something important; he felt more comfortable answering questions on the fly. His third time participating in the competition, this was the first time Oren made it past the first round. “Try, try again,” he said. “I was pumped I finally made it senior year.”
Each of the 15 teams presenting in the cameo round earned $1,000. Five teams were chosen to move on to the final round of the competition, pocketing a guaranteed $5,000, a prize that tops out at $25,000 to the first place winner. They have until March to perfect what will then be a 20-minute presentation followed by Q&A.
The competition isn’t all about the money, though. “Being an entrepreneurship major, I have a lot of ideas,” Oren said. “The business plan competition is a fun way to see how I stack up.”
Sixty second competition
That’s my goal as a participant in the UD Business Plan Competition.
Entrants conceive a product or service idea and are given a minute to present in front of spectators and judges what their idea is, why it’s better than the competition and what finances they need from investors – a 60 second spiel called an elevator pitch.
I enjoy public speaking. With a major in entrepreneurship, I had to come up with a product and elevator pitch for one of my classes. The hypothetical “Haughty Heels” was born: high heels that convert into flats. I liked presenting in class. So I entered the competition.
I sat with some classmates in O’Leary on Saturday, October 29, waiting for our names to appear on the projector. The 91 presentations were announced in random order throughout the afternoon. The mystery of not knowing when it would be your turn to stand behind the podium at the front of the room added to the tension.
The last group of 10 to present included myself. I got behind the podium. A friend in the audience flashed me a thumbs up. I talked. The buzzer sounded directly after I spoke the last word of my pitch. Perfect timing.
Though my idea wasn’t one of 15 invited to move onto the next stage, I placed in the top 10 for elevator pitches and won prize money. Not enough to produce my product, but definitely enough to buy another few weeks’ worth of groceries. And as a college student, that’s quite enough for me.
Explore beyond the shore
“Our God-given asset is the weather,” said Jorge Lopez, senior accounting and finance major from Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. However paradise-like it is, Puerto Rico is still part of the United States. As a commonwealth of the U.S. it is self-governed, but the U.S. controls its external affairs and its chief of state is President Obama. Puerto Ricans are American citizens and their textbooks are printed in English.
They also come to UD for the same reasons as everyone else. “Most of us are from the same Marianist high school,” said Lopez, referring to his alma mater, Colegio San José. “But it’s not just that; we come to UD like all others because of the academics and the community.”
Lopez and four other Puerto Rican students gave a presentation in O’Leary last Monday. Four school of business undergrads and one political science major spoke about Puerto Rico’s history, government, economy and — as coined by the new campaign promoting business in Puerto Rico — why Puerto Rico does it better.
The students’ passion for the island was evident. They encourage others to visit and experience Puerto Rico for themselves. Sophomore marketing major Roberto Reyes ended the presentation with an invitation. “Explore beyond the shore. We’re going to be there with open arms.”
‘Everything you own in a box to the left’
Remember looking for a place to leave your mini-fridge when you went home for the summer? Those days when you couldn’t bring your couch home because it wouldn’t fit in your car?
Flyer Enterprises has the solution for UD students looking to stash their stuff over the summer.
This week Flyer Enterprises launched its latest division, FE Storage. The pilot program allows up to 100 students to store personal belongings at Mayberry’s Van & Storage, Inc.
Students can choose between two different sized boxes, as well as purchase storage space in the facility.
What about students who don’t have a car on campus?
The week before exams students will drop off their items by the former Rudy’s Fly-Buy on Stonemill, and they will pick them up at the same location in August.
“The best thing from the student perspective is it is more convenient and it’s priced competitively so you don’t have to go in with 10 other people, “ said Joe Guy, the former CEO of Flyer Enterprises.
The launch of FE Storage marks the ninth Flyer Enterprises business venture in 10 years, helping the organization to maintain its status at the fastest-growing student business in the nation.
Guy said that with diminishing free space on campus, Flyer Enterprises is looking into developing service-based divisions.
“Storage is the first step in that direction,” said Guy. “We see a lot of opportunity.”
Rejecting false choices
A business’ bottom line doesn’t have to interfere with a desire to engage in socially responsible investing — in many cases, business leaders are discovering that the latter can improve their companies’ financial health.
On the first day of the R.I.S.E. XI Forum at UD Arena, student attendees from universities across the nation heard from panelists who explained the benefits of using a social conscience to select investments. Carolyn Green, co-founder and managing partner of EnerGreen Capital Management, LLC, moderated the four-person panel. The group later took questions from a panel of three students and fielded further inquiries from audience members.
When a student in the audience asked how businesses could still make money while investing with a sense of social responsibility, United Nations Global Compact Deputy Director Gavin Power said the two beliefs don’t have to be at odds.
“There are real business benefits,” Power said. “I think that’s really a false choice we have to move past.”
Said panelist Meg Voorhes, deputy director and research director for the Social Investment Forum, “It forces companies to be creative.”
Panelist Ron Bates, who manages the Legg Mason Partners Social Awareness mutual fund, said the company has both investment analysts and social research analysts on staff. Many of the social research analysts have degrees in liberal arts fields instead of a traditional business school background, and they are charged with identifying companies that have an ethic of social responsibility.
The R.I.S.E. Forum continues Friday and Saturday.
Repackaging luxury
High-end brands touting value, quality
Since 2008, worldwide economic woes have made thrift noble, value prized, and conservation responsible. But while largesse has become passé, quality, dependability and style haven’t, and those who market high-end brands say that’s part of what will sustain them.
With an almost 50 percent drop in the luxury automotive market in the United States and around the world since the middle of 2008, these are challenging times to be marketing a luxury vehicle, said Jim Vurpillat ’87, director of global marketing for Cadillac, who was on campus in April to speak to School of Business Administration marketing classes.
“No one has ever experienced a market collapse of this magnitude, this fast,” said Vurpillat, who lives in Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich. “But if we can get by all the issues we’re facing, it’s really an exciting time in the industry.”
Vurpillat, a marketing graduate who earned his MBA from UD in 1989, said consumers won’t stop valuing advanced technology, a hallmark of high-end products.
He sees considerable consumer interest in fuel economy and green technology. As these trends appear in the luxury market, he expects the message to be less about conservation and economy and more about offering leading-edge technology. With the contraction in automotive sales, Vurpillat said that Cadillac is focusing on its well-recognized strengths.
“We will focus on the core attributes of the brand,” he said. “We’ll talk about styling and advanced technology, and also the value equation of the brand, resale values and warranty coverage. And there’s always a level of aspiration and reward with a luxury brand. People think, ‘When I make it, I’m going to reward myself and buy luxury.’”
New markets, classic marketing
Marty Grunder, a 1990 management graduate and owner of Grunder Landscaping in Dayton, said that while some clients are cutting back on large-scale services, he has seen new markets develop in the recession.
“Surprisingly, people can’t sell their homes right now, but many want something done to spruce up their homes,” Grunder said. “Landscaping, done right, makes people feel
better about themselves, and an investment in landscaping will grow in beauty and value. Not too many things do that right now.”
And for Grunder, a struggling economy isn’t enough to change what makes his marketing most effective: Relationships, networking and value.
“Relationships mean everything,” Grunder said. “In this environment, people are cautious. They can’t afford a bad investment with a service provider that doesn’t know what they are doing or isn’t financially stable. We are communicating along these lines
constantly, and we are networking like crazy to keep our name out there. And, we talk about value, value, value. And we keep talking about that.”
In essence, he’s doing his best to make the most of a difficult environment.
“The best lesson,” he said, “is that the only difference between a rut and a grave is depth. You have to get out of the rut you’re in and think positive and work hard. That seems to make the most sense of all.”
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