Difference
C O L L E G E
THE
A M AG A Z I N E F O R A L U M N I | S P R I N G 2 014
Up the ante
College of Business
continues to rise
O F
B U S I N E S S
Greetings from the College of Business
W
e can’t deny our roots. As a college, we can trace every accomplishment we have enjoyed to the spirit of hard work and ingenuity of
the early settlers before us. That Colorado spirit of independence
inspires us. It helped us build a strong foundation, and it gives us the courage to
move forward.
We’re innovators. We pursue independence. We create our destiny.
When state funding waned, we fashioned enterprise solutions that help
underwrite our commitment to students and progress. We are committed to
honoring the entrepreneurial spirit that guides us. As we train the next generation of business leaders, we take that tenet to heart. Through our teachings and
practice, we’ll continue to embody the spirit of entrepreneurialism and free
enterprise that is intrinsic to our college, our state, and our community.
This issue of The Difference highlights some of the ways we are inspired by
Colorado’s call to innovate and create. The colorful hot air balloon on the cover
might jog your memory. The day the balloon took to the sky, a student venture
born at our Institute for Entrepreneurship – The Wild Gym Company – saw its
recognition soar, too. Read more about the company’s product-testing adventure
on Page 2.
Making real-world difference through innovation isn’t possible without
a few failures along the way. We grow from our mistakes. The lessons we learn
through failure enable us to find – and truly appreciate – our successes. On Page
5, four College of Business alumni share their stories about failure and its power
to motivate entrepreneurs and all of us.
Also in this issue, we highlight our partnership with Coca-Cola. You’ll
learn that Coke’s global empire – it spans 207 countries/provinces – is cemented
in a values system very similar to ours here at the College of Business. That’s
why our collaboration works. This feature, starting on Page 10, will give you a
glimpse at the good work we’re doing together.
I’ll leave you with this thought: Our success isn’t measured by wealth but
by the mark we leave on society. Success is measured by the ideas we share, the
new ground we tread, and our fearless rebounds from failure.
I hope this issue of The Difference inspires you to fail. Because then your
successes will rise. Until next time, be bold and innovative.
Ajay Menon
Dean
The Difference is a publication of the
College of Business, Colorado State
University, Fort Collins, Colorado.
MANAGING EDITOR
Tosha Jupiter
Marketing and Communications
1201 Campus Delivery
Fort Collins, CO 80523-1201
Tosha.Jupiter@business.colostate.edu
EDITORS
Wade Corliss, ’12, B.S.B.A.
Katie Kershman, ’12, B.S.B.A.
Karen Klein, ’90, B.S.B.A.
WRITERS
Julie Estlick
Kate Jeracki
Tosha Jupiter
Jill Westfall
Cyndia Zwahlen
STUDENT WRITERS/EDITORS
Annie Burnham, ’14, M.S. in Public
Communications and Technology
Natalie Hansen, ’14, M.S. in Public
Communications and Technology
Fred Herrera, ’14, B.S.B.A
CSU CREATIVE SERVICES
Coordinator: Barbara Dennis
Design: Doug Garcia
Photographers: Bill Cotton, ’03; John Eisele;
and Joe Mendoza
KEY CONTACTS
Ajay Menon
Dean, College of Business
(970) 491-2398
dean@biz.colostate.edu
Dan Ganster
Associate Dean
(970) 491-4719
Dan.Ganster@business.colostate.edu
Sanjay Ramchander
Associate Dean
(970) 491-6681
Sanjay.Ramchander@business.colostate.edu
Erik Olson
Director of Development
(970) 491-6378
Erik.Olson@business.colostate.edu
WWW.DIFFERENCE.BIZ.COLOSTATE.EDU
Up the ante: College of Business continues to rise
2
Failing forward: Four entrepreneurial CSU alumni
use painful lessons to power their successes
5
Results flow: From Coca-Cola-CSU partnership 8
Behavioral Research Lab
11
Faculty/Staff News
12
Enhancing education: Centers of Excellence support and
expand College’s primary function of teaching students 15
College Briefs
17
CSU polo champ pins future on a business degree 24
Great Reads
26
The Company We Keep
28
This is your magazine, alumni
More than two-thirds of readers want a printed
copy of The Difference magazine.
Digital isn’t totally replacing print, at least
not yet.
Last spring, we conducted an online survey among alumni, faculty, staff, and students
about their readership of this publication.
Honestly, we were expecting an overwhelming
preference for digital publication and delivery.
Not to be. Nearly seven out of 10 readers said
they prefer a printed copy.
Plus, a majority, 56 percent, say they’d like
to receive The Difference magazine three or
four times a year. That’s more than the two
per year we publish now, which 37 percent
prefer.
Maybe we’re doing something right. Nearly
90 percent say they read some or all of the
Spring 2013 issue, up from just over 60 percent for the Spring 2011 issue.
The kinds of articles you find most interesting? Faculty, alumni, and
student news tops the
list along with business trends. So we
hope you find this
issue particularly
interesting and relevant as we take your
feedback and put a light
on entrepreneurialism in the
College of Business and among our students
and alumni.
Good reading,
Bob Taber
Executive Director
Branding and Communications
Colorado State University is an equal access/
equal opportunity university.
Friend:
facebook.com/BizatColoradoState
Follow:
twitter.com/#!/CSUCollegeOfBiz
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS | MAKE A DIFFERENCE 1
Up the ante
College of Business
continues to rise
The College of Business never met a challenge it didn’t accept. So as state financing
for higher education began to decrease, the
business college at Colorado’s land-grant
university did what it always does – figured
out how to respond to change. It anticipated
market demand. It channeled the lessons of
Colorado’s explorers and thought leaders who
turned challenges into opportunities to blaze
new frontiers. The College of Business became
the entrepreneur.
Creating entrepreneurial terrain
A new academic landscape demands innovation and creativity. For a college determined to
rise despite reduced state funding, becoming
a financially sustainable operation that can
underwrite funding shortfalls means taking a
fresh look at teaching and learning.
“Because of the funding changes, we
now need to run business schools like a business,” says John Hoxmeier, associate professor
of computer information systems at Colorado State University. “Virtually all aspects of
higher education are going to have to adapt to
this changing business model and changing
delivery model. And those two things are happening rapidly.”
2 Business schools attract some of the
brightest students from around the world.
At CSU’s College of Business, acceptance
standards are high – even higher than general
University standards – so business students
come in top-of-class and poised to earn a
degree that makes them competitive in the
global marketplace. Business students want
convenience and the latest gadgetry and
technology.
“Today’s students are used to interfacing
with mobile technology, tablets, and computers – they like learning in this format,” says
Joe Cannon, professor of marketing at the
College of Business. “We need to leverage
these technologies to facilitate student learning.” Students crave challenges that require
innovative thinking and come with rewards
in the form of fulfillment and world-changing
solutions. Business learning is evolving, and
the new terrain is an exciting, potential-filled
academic space.
Teaching toward innovation
Today’s graduate-level classes at the College of
Business might have 40 students sitting in the
classroom and 350 more participating from
COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
around the world via the online platform. It’s
a Universal Classroom model that the College
has been perfecting for nearly half a century,
and it provides the same dynamic learning
experience for every student.
The College’s online classes happen
much like live TV. A busy control room functions as the nerve center, and its production
staff manages multiple cameras to capture the
best angles, lighting, and audio as the instructor interacts in the classroom. Digital coordinators field incoming messages from distance
learners, who can participate in real-time or
watch a class when it’s convenient.
The online learning model continues to
transform, thanks to the College’s dedicated
and forward-thinking faculty and leadership
team. Professor Cannon and Brian Fugate,
associate professor of management, currently
are testing a prototype software application
they developed that fosters active learning approaches in the online learning arena.
“While active learning – using case
studies, discussion, and debate – is considered the best way to learn many business practices, this approach can be
difficult to foster in the online
classroom,” says Cannon. “Many students take
online courses to go to class at their convenience. This can make traditional interactive
teaching modes difficult to employ. We have
created a software application that brings
more active learning to online students.”
Beyond the classroom, Cannon and
Hoxmeier are helping shape the formation of
the Teaching Innovation Lab at the College
of Business. The lab, now in the discovery
phase, has potential to harness the talents of
the collective business faculty and to inspire
fresh ways of teaching while using technology
as an ally.
“We have a very creative group of
faculty, and we hope this lab will tap into their
entrepreneurial spirit in some of the areas
they know best – teaching and learning,” says
Cannon. “We believe this lab can be used to
facilitate the development and dissemination
of teaching innovations across the faculty.
Technology holds a great deal of promise for
higher education – it has the potential to make
learning more efficient and more effective. We
hope our efforts in this area will keep the CSU
College of Business at the forefront.”
Entrepreneurial by choice
The College of Business continues to rise
because it seeks new challenges in the midst of
change. There’s risk in that. But there’s reward
as well. In recent years, the College has flexed
to create successful programs, partnerships,
and learning opportunities that benefit business students and the world.
The Global Social and Sustainable
Enterprise MBA program, for instance, gives
aspiring social entrepreneurs the opportunity
to complete MBA course work in the College
of Business while building real-world ventures
that are field-tested during an intensive summer practicum. GSSE students test business
models that address some of the biggest human challenges of our time such as poverty,
hunger, maternal health, clean water access,
and environmental degradation.
“The GSSE has empowered 125 students studying at CSU in Fort Collins and 50
studying at our partner university – United
States International University in Nairobi,
Kenya – to build ventures while earning a very
unique MBA,” says Carl Hammerdorfer, director of the GSSE program. “If it appears that
our students’ ventures have the potential for
profitability and scale, we offer them acceleration via our New Economy Venture Accelerator, operated by the Institute for Entrepreneurship here and separately at USIU.”
Named for the very idea that is infusing
new life into the way the College of Business
approaches business, the Institute for Entrepreneurship is in the mix as an inspirational
force for the College’s future. Through the
Institute’s Venture Accelerator and Hatchery
opportunities, new businesses are born and
incubated at the College at an exciting pace.
4 The Wild Gym
Company is a shining
example of a business
that got its start at the
College of Business.
The fitness company
attained national notoriety when GSSE MBA
student David Hunt
(’13) and his business partner, Dan Vinson, launched their first
product, monkii bars, in wild fashion.
The team braved Colorado’s open blue
sky in a hot-air balloon to test out the monkii
bars and get some video footage. A harnessedin Vinson did pull-ups on the bars beneath
the basket as a testament to the company’s
slogan “Workout Anywhere.” Folks on the
ground wondered what was happening. Why
was a man dangling from a balloon? And
people started to talk about the fearless company born at the CSU College of Business.
“As Dan was working out beneath
the balloon, bystanders pulled over to take
pictures. Soon a police car was following our
balloon’s path. As we approached our landing
COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
zone, both police and news crews were waiting,” says Hunt. “The initial interview spread
like wildfire. Soon our phones were ringing
nonstop with national news agencies wanting
to hear our story. The whirlwind lasted several
days and included segments on the Today Show
and Good Morning America. We had a nice
spike in web traffic and pre-orders on our site.”
The Colorado State University College
of Business isn’t afraid of a challenge. For an
entrepreneurial college, there are no limits to
learning.
“Not just any business is born at the
CSU College of Business,” says Charisse
Bowen, managing director for the Institute for
Entrepreneurship. “We’re proponents of business with heart and business with the guts to
reach toward new heights and greater success.
We’re constantly upping the ante – we have to
in order to grow and thrive as a college.”
Failing forward
Four entrepreneurial CSU alumni use
painful lessons to power their successes
Entrepreneurs often share similar traits. Most
have the drive to run their own show from an
early age. Many are constantly on the lookout
for new challenges and often have several ventures going at the same time. All take risks.
But successful entrepreneurs share an
even more important quality: They learn from
their setbacks.
Or as Google Ventures partner Chris
Hutchins (’07), bluntly puts it: their failures.
“Some people are afraid to say the word
‘failure,’ ” he says. “But the greatest trait in
an entrepreneur is just to accept that it went
wrong and learn from it.”
This Silicon Valley resident is one of
four successful alumni of the College of Business at Colorado State University who have
carved out their own niches in commerce and
used their entrepreneurial skills to thrive in a
volatile business landscape.
Several ran small businesses while they
were still in school. Two have routinely juggled operations at more than one company at
a time. Risk is an accepted part of each of the
alumni’s entrepreneur experiences, although
their individual tolerance for it varies.
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS | MAKE A DIFFERENCE 5
From left,
Kent Anderson,
Scott Jackson,
Chris Hutchins, and
Gary Salomon
The most common thread is their
willingness to ensure that the painful lessons
learned during failures are not wasted.
Bankruptcy schools Macy’s executive
Kent Anderson (’77), now president of macys.
com, the San Francisco-based online division
of Macy’s Inc., survived the parent company’s
nearly three-year slog through bankruptcy,
from 1992 through 1994. He went on to start
the retailer’s first e-commerce presence, which
was originally a bare-bones site that sold just
$30,000 in Christmas gifts its first year. Today,
macys.com accounts for a fast-growing share
of Macy’s total sales.
“Bankruptcy is a difficult period of time
but also a wonderful time for a young executive like myself,” Anderson says of the early
’90s event. “We were sent to a special school,
which taught us how to make changes very
rapidly.”
That lesson came in handy a few years
later when, in 1998, he was offered the chance
to create an entrepreneurial venture inside
the company. It was a chance to be what some
call an intrapreneur, in order to build out the
fledgling Macy’s website. At the time, Anderson was told he could choose four employees
in the company to help. Today, 15 years later,
macys.com holds its own against deep-pocketed rivals, employs hundreds of people, and
recently moved into the top eight floors of a
San Francisco high-rise, doubling its current
space in the city.
6 COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
Learning to perform triage
on troubled assets
For Scott Jackson (’78), a Denver-based financial industry veteran, early jobs at two big
Texas banks that shut down around his ears
gave him the skills he has used throughout
his career to successfully spot and leverage
underdeveloped assets.
“I became a sort of triage doctor,” says
Jackson, now chief executive officer for Colorado National Bancorp, which he co-founded
in 2009. “I was very fortunate to get in on the
cutting edge of figuring out how to monetize
the balance sheets. We did one of the first
credit card and auto loan securitizations … it
was somewhat of a landmark effort. We really
created almost a new industry.”
He used similar skills to set up a real estate investment trust, or REIT, to upgrade and
invest in manufactured-home communities.
He left that company, Affordable Residential
Communities, in which he still holds shares,
in 2007.
Cashing brings new challenges
Gary Salomon (’79), thrived on challenges
as the co-founder and chairman of Fastsigns
International Inc. The franchise company
based in Carrollton, Texas, near Dallas, now
employs about 200 people and has around 530
franchise locations worldwide. Salomon left
the company in 2009, several years after selling it to a private equity firm, because he kept
bumping heads in the new, quieter, and more
formal corporate structure.
“One of the things that happens with an
entrepreneur… is that we love to be in the
action when things are growing and there
are problems that need to be solved.”
“One of the things that happens with an
entrepreneur, at least in my experience, is that
we love to be in the action when things are
growing and there are problems that need to
be solved,” says Salomon, who is now looking for a new venture. “Once it gets into the
maintenance of the business, where things
are running fairly smoothly, the entrepreneur
doesn’t really get his juice. I enjoyed troubleshooting and problem solving.”
Preparing for success
Figuring out how entrepreneurs succeed or
fail is a growing focus at universities. The
stakes are high. Successful entrepreneurs
are seen as critical job creators and potential
engines for economic growth.
Typically, discussions have focused on
how entrepreneurs, and their investors, can
avoid failure. But more and more, people are
learning that setbacks can lead to success.
There is an annual conference, FailCon, in San
Francisco, devoted to well-known technology
entrepreneurs dissecting their failures. The
idea has proven so popular that the founders
now license the concept to other event organizers around the world.
“If you do have a failure, if you are open
about it, you are more likely to bounce back
because you think, ‘OK, that was a normal
part of my life development. What’s next?’,”
says Cassandra Phillips, executive producer
and co-founder of FailCon.
Turning a job loss into a
(big) opportunity
Hutchins has had more than one opportunity
to learn from setbacks in his fast-track career.
When the economy crashed in late 2008, he
was laid off from his position as a strategy
consultant at the high-profile Monitor Group
after just 10 months on the job.
He asked himself how he could turn
downsizing into an opportunity. The answer:
He started LaidOff Camp, a networking event
that attracted thousands of people at meetups around the country. Hutchins used the
process to build a personal brand and pick up
consulting work with some of his event sponsors and partners.
He then took a low-budget tour around
the world, meeting with entrepreneurs in
third-world countries. Hutchins parlayed that
experience into a talk and presentation at the
South by Southwest conference. He was taken
by the start-up ecosystem he found there.
“It was the first time I realized this is
what I want to do,” Hutchins says. He began
meeting with start-ups and looking for a job.
He landed a job in business development at
SimpleGeo until he was recruited by Digg
founder Kevin Rose to co-found a new mobile
applications start-up, Milk. Google Ventures
was an investor, and within a year, the company was acquired by Google, and Milk was
closed.
Now Hutchins uses his experience in the
entrepreneur trenches to help him find promising start-ups for Google Ventures to back.
And as much as he hopes for successes,
he has learned the hard way that success is not
always what it seems.
At Milk, every time there was a product
launch, thousands of people downloaded the
app leading the team “to think we are building
awesome product,” Hutchins says. In reality,
because Rose had millions of Twitter followers, whatever he posted about, including product launches, made big waves. Eventually, that
effect wore off, and the company was caught
by surprise with much less organic growth
than they expected.
“When things are going right, you are
often blindsided,” Hutchins says.
Driven by the entrepreneurial
vision: I can do better
Still, setbacks haven’t stopped Hutchins or his
fellow entrepreneurial alumni from taking on
new challenges and, presumably, new failures/
learning opportunities. For example, Jackson
is growing a separate mobile-housing community business, Global Mobile, and looking
for new locations for his Dallas-based salon
franchise. He’s also starting a side business
in goat meat production. And Salomon, who
has already invested with one Fort Collins
entrepreneur, is looking for opportunities to
help other start-ups.
Asking an entrepreneur to put on the
brakes isn’t realistic, no matter what setbacks
they have faced, Salomon says. “That’s like
asking a greyhound to walk slowly.”
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS | MAKE A DIFFERENCE 7
Results
flow
From Coca-Cola-CSU
partnership
Eric Berlinberg is a young man of action, but not even the former president
of the Associated Students of Colorado
State University could have imagined
himself in the center of a $5.2 million
strategic partnership between CocaCola and Colorado State University.
The Littleton native was in his
junior year of the Organization and
Innovation Management program in
2011 when the University’s contract
with Pepsi ended. He served as an advisory member on the committee that
was selecting the next campus beverage supplier.
8 COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
On the table from Coca-Cola were collaborative
programs, internships, and research initiatives around
shared interests in water conservation and a focus on
sustainability. A senior practicum for supply chain management students at Coca-Cola’s Denver bottling plant
particularly caught his eye. The program was a year old
when Berlinberg walked across the graduation stage in
2012 with a job offer in hand that included supporting
those very interns.
“Coke’s approach was very student-focused and
student-based, and they wanted to do so much more
than just take my dollar and give me a soda,” Berlinberg says. “I was so intrigued and impressed with (Vice
President for University Operations) Amy Parsons for
deciding to create a more strategic partnership and not
just use Coke as a supplier.”
Berlinberg, who has a concentration in supply
chain management, was the first of three CSU graduates hired into Coca-Cola’s competitive Supply Chain
Management Leadership program where new employees
study different areas of the company.
“Coke wanted someone with ties to the University
to facilitate the practicum program, and I was a natural
fit,” says Berlinberg, former Coca-Cola distribution comanager for Northern Colorado. “It all came full circle
when I was assigned to Denver and got to work with the
practicum students.”
Partnership marries goals, missions
Successful partnerships are a two-way street. Coca-Cola
and CSU, both leaders in global water issues, are sharing
expertise and research support and working hand-inhand on projects that aim to fulfill Coke’s mission tenet
to “create value and make a difference.”
Already, partner programs that seek innovative
solutions on issues of water purification and technology
in the developing world, recycling, and creating healthier
communities are bearing fruit, with the College of
Business playing a leadership role. “This is a really great
partnership,” says College of Business Director of Strategic Initiatives Christine Chin. “Faculty and students get
exposure to real-world problem solving, strategy, and
research, and Coke advances its sustainability goals and
strategic initiatives. It is very consistent with the College’s mission of developing and disseminating business
education and research programs that enhance the wellbeing and sustainability of our global community.”
‘Fresh eyes’ see new solutions
Coca-Cola’s Denver campus is a hub of activity for a
Supply Chain Management practicum team again this
semester. The first group of four students looked at the
financial impact of water use reduction at the Denver
plant and how to implement different options both
technically and through human resources, according to
Associate Professor of Supply Chain Management Brian
Fugate, who initiated the program.
“At our Denver plant, we have a goal of water
neutrality,” says Michele McKillip, western region vice
president for public affairs and communications for the
Coca-Cola Company North America. “It’s been beneficial to bring in fresh eyes and find extra measures we
have started implementing to make that goal a reality.”
A second team studied recycling at the plant to
determine how to increase effectiveness from a processing point of view. “Right now, a third team is working on
measuring the results of those first two groups and how to
make it scalable for plants across the globe,” Fugate says.
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS | MAKE A DIFFERENCE 9
Students examine clean water markets
The recent launch of Coca-Cola’s Global
EKOCENTER™ in partnership with DEKA
R&D and several other companies brought a
unique opportunity for CSU’s Global Social
and Sustainable Enterprise MBA program to
work on water stewardship issues for those
who lack access to safe drinking water.
The EKOCENTERs are off-the-grid,
modular kiosks that transform a standard
shipping container into a community hub
that combines safe, clean drinking water using the Slingshot™ water purification system,
wireless communication systems, refrigerated
vaccination storage, and a solar-powered system. The idea is to “jump start entrepreneurship opportunities and community development” by recruiting women to operate each of
the nearly 2,000 centers in poor countries.
The units, however, are not cheap. A
team of four GSSE MBA students is doing its
final project studying ways that Coca-Cola
can leverage Slingshot™ or the EKOCENTER™ in developed countries like the United States and
create more demand.
“The GSSE students generally identify a need and
then create a venture,” Chin says. “This is unique because
they have a product that fulfills needs in a developing
country, and their challenge is to find a use in the developed world. If they can increase the number of units
sold, it will bring down the per-unit cost for EKOCENTER™ entrepreneurs and improve quality of life for the
people they serve.”
Kathryn Ernst, managing director of the College’s
Center for the Advancement of Sustainable Enterprise,
points out that Coca-Cola is “looking into the future
and incorporating sustainability as resources get constrained,” which dovetails perfectly with the GSSE’s holistic approach to achieving sustainability through entrepreneurship. “We have a wider definition of stakeholders
than people who own stock and are directly involved in
the business.”
10 COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
Research reveals healthy-eating roadblocks
A challenge from Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper led to another collaboration: the Healthy Colorado
pilot project. Coca-Cola and CSU are finding ways to
harness “entrepreneurial energy” and transform Colorado from the leanest to the healthiest state in the nation
and stem the rise in obesity and diabetes.
A group of business students and some health and
exercise majors worked with the company’s global innovation process and applied it to low-income Hispanic
consumers in two Colorado communities, one rural and
one urban. Students used community assessment and
ethnographic research to construct consumer profiles to
describe the challenges and barriers for healthy eating
and adequate exercise. A two-day brainstorming session
with experts from a variety of fields considered product
and service ideas to help families eat healthfully. Currently, Coca-Cola and CSU staffers are working with the
College of Business’s Institute for Entrepreneurship to
look at how to shift the model and bring entrepreneurs
into the conversation.
The experience surprised many students, said
Professor of Marketing Kathleen Kelly, who directs the
Center for Marketing and Social Issues at CSU. “It was
very eye-opening for the students to see what kinds of
foods people had in their pantries and how much of a
challenge it is to not only afford healthy food but to also
have access to healthy food options,” she says.
A model partnership
Just as Coca-Cola has offered access to its processes and
provided scientists, branding, and other experts for study
panels and speakers on campus, talent has also been
leveraged across CSU from the College of Agricultural
Sciences to on-campus ventures such as the popular Beverage Business Institute, whose graduates include several
Coke employees.
“CSU is a model business partner,” Coke’s McKillip
stresses. “We value the ideas, the research capabilities,
and the student/faculty expertise. We believe our success
at Coca-Cola depends on the success and vitality of the
communities where we operate, and we have found a
shared vision and mission with CSU.”
Behavioral Research Lab
An asset for the
College of Business
When most people think of university research, they picture white-coated professors
in test tube-filled labs searching for the next
great scientific breakthrough. The College of
Business at Colorado State University also
conducts research that can have far-reaching
impacts on business practices – just without
the white coats and test tubes.
The Behavioral Research Lab, opened
in 2011 on the first floor of Rockwell Hall
North, is one of the few facilities of its kind in
Northern Colorado. The lab has a focus group
room that can accommodate eight to 12 participants, a central research studio, a control/
observation room, and six small team rooms.
The research studio provides 20 partitioned
carrels, each with a networked computer, and
an experimental computer station with video
projection. The individual team rooms are
each equipped with a networked computer
that can simulate a virtual team environment.
“The lab is an invaluable asset for my
research,” says S.H. Mark Lee, an assistant
professor of marketing whose research focuses
on consumer psychology and social networking. “It’s really applied psychology, studying
what makes consumers behave in a certain
way, which can help businesses decide what
to put on store shelves. I can bring in different
groups to the lab – say college students – to
see how different environmental factors could
influence their buying decisions.”
The lab is available to researchers and
students across the CSU campus, as well as
local businesses.
Gina Mohr is an assistant professor of
marketing and director of operations for the
research lab, which is overseen by a committee
led by marketing department Chair Ken Manning. She also oversees the pool of business
students who sign up as research participants.
Mohr’s research focuses on food and
nutrition marketing, investigating topics such
as how claims on the front of a package can
bias the perception of a product’s nutritional
value despite the standard nutrition labels on
the back or how product placement in TV
shows influences consumer perceptions.
“The lab provides me everything I
need to conduct my research,” she says. “It
is a controlled environment that minimizes
extraneous factors that could influence data
collection in the field. It’s also a great place
to teach marketing students how to conduct
research through videotaping focus groups
and critiquing them.”
And providing they follow the University’s investigative Research Board policies and
College ethical standards, students can use the
lab to gather data for their senior capstone or
other projects.
“The lab is a valuable resource that
more local researchers should know about,”
Mohr says.
To learn more about the Behavioral
Research Lab, go to biz.colostate.edu/
researchLab.
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS | MAKE A DIFFERENCE 11
Faculty/Staff News
Adela Chen stepped
into her new role
in the CIS department as assistant
professor of computer information
systems in Fall 2013. A
native of China, Chen developed her passion
for business through her first job in human
resource information systems. “The curiosity
to learn more about business IT motivated
me to pursue graduate studies in business,”
she explains. After earning her Ph.D. from the
University of Georgia, Chen taught at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
Chen’s favorite part of her new position is “the
freedom to conduct research on technology
phenomena that intrigue me the most and the
opportunity to share my passion about the
CIS field with students and get them as passionate and interested.”
Nick Roberts, assistant professor of computer
information systems, joins the College of
Business with a Ph.D. from Clemson. Through
his classes, Nick hopes his students gain an appreciation for how to engage in critical thinking, complex reasoning, and effective communication regarding issues surrounding the role
of IT in organizations. He is a certified Project
Management Professional and teaches courses
in IT project management and IT strategy.
12 Jimmy Lockwood
recently graduated
with a Ph.D. in
business administration with
concentrations in
finance and statistics
from the University of South Carolina and is
currently serving as a visiting assistant professor in the finance and real estate department.
He and his wife moved to Fort Collins this
past summer and love the college atmosphere.
“I hope my enthusiasm and passion for learning is contagious and students enjoy sharing
their knowledge of finance and develop a
curiosity to learn more.”
In Fall 2013, Jim Cook
became the temporary assignment
instructor of
marketing for the
CSU College of
Business. He has
worked at Henderson
State University and Tarleton State University,
taught several courses at community colleges,
and served as vice president of student affairs
at Laramie County Community College in
Cheyenne, Wyo. “Hands-down, my favorite
part of the job is simply the process of teaching – imparting knowledge – and interacting
with my students in and out of class,” says
Cook.
COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
Tim Galpin joined the
College of Business
in Fall 2013 as a
clinical professor
of management.
Galpin credits his
father for his interest
in management. “My father was a factory
worker for General Electric for 30 years, and
from his experiences, I wanted to try to make
employees’ working environments better.” He
has a Ph.D. in organization development from
UCLA. Before coming to CSU, Galpin started
several consulting businesses, including one in
London, that specializes in retail consulting.
He hopes, through teaching, to build the business leaders and entrepreneurs of the future.
Manuel Macera grew up in Lima, Peru. There,
he earned his bachelor’s degree from
the Universidad
Nacional Agraria
la Molina. From
there, he moved to
Buenos Aires,
Argentina, where he
earned his master’s degree. He recently completed his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Minnesota. Macera is an assistant
professor of international business finance for
undergraduates.
Lynn Shore builds on management department’s strengths
Frank Smith started
in his role as associate lecturer during
Fall 2013. Before
coming to CSU,
Smith worked at
Texas Tech, Southeastern Oklahoma State University, the University
of Central Arkansas, and Henderson State
University. When asked what sparked his interest in finance, Smith cites his parents. “The
genesis of my interest in finance was coming
home after school and checking out how my
parent’s stocks and mutual funds had done,”
says Smith. “I thought it was cool for them to
make money without even working at it, while
they were at another job!”
Chris Blocker, assistant professor
of marketing,
recently completed his Ph.D. in
consumer behavior
and marketing from
the University of Tennessee.
Marketing has interested him since boyhood.
“As part of the Department of Marketing,” he
says, “I hope to carry forward a commitment
to excellence in scholarship, teaching, and
service in ways that help lead the College and
University to new heights within my spheres
of influence.” His research explores how value
is co-created for customers in marketplace relationships and has been published in journals
The College of Business welcomes Lynn Shore as the new
chair of the management department. Shore joined the College in Fall 2013 and immediately began developing plans
to build on the department’s strengths. She’s actively leading
the management faculty through strategic planning with the
goal of exploring more specialized management programs
for students.
“Entrepreneurship and supply chain management are
growing fields and the department seeks to build these programs and student activities to enhance the employment of
students,” said Shore. “The Institute for Entrepreneurship is
engaged in a variety of activities that will help students across campus develop their entrepreneurial skills and mindset. Human resource management is another area of the department
with growing student demand and good career opportunities. We have an active student club
in human resource management that is also creating professional development opportunities
for the students.”
Shore plans to teach once she knows the ropes as department chair. For now, she’s busy
learning the finer details of management programs and classes while getting to know her colleagues. Shore is a graduate of the University of Oregon with a Bachelor of Arts in psychology. She earned her Ph.D. in industrial and organizational psychology from Colorado State
University. She recently finished her position as Department of Management Chair at San
Diego State University. Before her time at San Diego State, she also worked as a professor at
the University of California, Irvine and at Georgia State University.
such as the Journal of Consumer Research and
the Journal of Academy of Marketing Science.
Tomasz Miaskiewicz,
originally from Poland, teaches one of
the newer courses
in the College of
Business: Digital
Marketing. During
his undergraduate career at the University of Pittsburgh, Miaskiewicz worked for a startup company, Labwerks
Interactive. Upon completion of his degree,
he moved to Boston and worked for another
startup, Dakasa. Miaskiewicz enjoys working in the dynamic startup atmosphere and
wants to prepare his students with applicable
tools they will use in their careers. “I focus
on Google Adwords, Google Analytics, and
other tools and platforms that are commonly
utilized by companies,” says Miaskiewicz. “By
incorporating these tools in the context of
class assignments and the course project, my
students gain exposure to the tools practitioners currently utilize.” COLLEGE OF BUSINESS | MAKE A DIFFERENCE 13
14 COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
Enhancing
education
Centers of Excellence support and expand
College’s primary function of teaching students
Charisse Bowen spends her days
watching ideas come to life.
As the managing director of the Institute for
Entrepreneurship at Colorado State University’s College of Business, Bowen’s enthusiasm helps fuel institute programming as she
strives to inspire students, entrepreneurs,
and community members to channel their
own passions into life and work. Through the
institute, Bowen reaches across the University
and outward across the nation and world as
an ambassador for entrepreneurship and to
help anyone with a good business idea find the
tools and support to succeed.
“My role gives me a unique vantage
point from which to watch progress,” Bowen
says. “I work among the dreamers where ideas
are raw and the energy is robust. I watch business ventures emerge and grow at CSU and
then go on to thrive. The Fort Collins community is an amazing support system for my
work and the startups the College of Business
champions.”
As an incubator for new student businesses, the Institute for Entrepreneurship is in
constant conversation with thinkers and doers
beyond campus borders. Yet, the institute is
just one example of the efforts to connect the
intellectual capital of the College with people
and companies searching for fresh business
ideas and solutions.
The College of Business currently houses seven centers and institutes — the Centers
of Excellence. While each has a specialized
mission, all build bridges from the world of
academia to the community through accessible programming and engagement.
“Centers of Excellence in the College of
Business enhance the fundamental educational function by providing out-of-classroom
support that challenges students and allows
them to apply the knowledge and theory
provided in the classroom,” says Carl Hammerdorfer, director of the Global Social and
Director’s Chair: Carl Hammerdorfer
I see centers as performing functions that support, facilitate,
enhance, and sometimes expand the College’s primary function,
education. CASE, the center that I run, does all of those things
for the GSSE MBA program. We support the educational function
by recruiting students, organizing classrooms, raising resources,
and forming partnerships that support GSSE’s education. We
facilitate the educational function by choosing the right students,
orienting them, inspiring them, advising them, and monitoring
their progress and their perception of the program. We enhance
the education of students by creating additional out-of-classroom
events such as our Sustainable Enterprise Speakers Series,
brown-bags with leading practitioners, and public events where
students can practice their presentation and other skills. And finally, we provide the means for
our program to expand its output by, for example, scaling the number of African student-entrepreneurs educated and graduated each year by more than 1,000 percent through our SEMBAA
partnership in Kenya.
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS | MAKE A DIFFERENCE 15
CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE
“We identify opportunities for our students
Beverage Business
Institute
to compete in business plan competitions
Delivers management
education and research
and for prestigious fellowships.”
with a focus on
beverage operations,
– Carl Hammerdorfer
wholesaling, and
distribution
Center for the
Advancement
of Sustainable
Sustainable Enterprise MBA program and
executive director of the Center for Advancement of Sustainable Enterprise. The Center for Advancement of Sustainable Enterprise, Hammerdorfer explains,
supports a uniquely applied MBA program,
GSSE, that prepares students to build ventures
designed to build global prosperity. GSSE’s
student recruitment efforts brought in five Fulbright Scholars for its newest class, which raises
the academic level and prestige of the program,
while enriching classroom discussion.
Centers of Excellence connect students
with their communities and with opportunities to grow as business leaders and worldchangers.
“We identify opportunities for our
students to compete in business plan competitions and for prestigious fellowships,” says
Hammerdorfer. “Recently, one of our teams
won the regional Walmart Sustainable Business competition and was named a semi-finalist in the Echoing Green Fellowship program.”
Find out more about the College of
Business Centers of Excellence at biz.colostate.
edu/centers.
16 COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
Enterprise
Creates a connection
between science
and innovation in the
marketplace at an
operational level
Center for Marketing
and Social Issues
Engages in
Michael McKee, editor of Bloomberg Television and Radio,
speaks at the February 2014 Finance and Real Estate
Summit, hosted by the Everitt Real Estate Center.
groundbreaking
research that addresses social issues through marketing principles and techniques
Institute for Entrepreneurship
Focuses on training entrepreneurs to positively impact the world
Center for Professional Development and Business Research
Provides professional expertise in research, consulting, training, and development to private
and public sector organizations
Everitt Real Estate Center
Produces and disseminates knowledge that addresses current and future real estate-related
needs of Northern Colorado and the Front Range
Supply Chain Management Forum
Provides partners with the opportunity to interact with CSU supply chain faculty, outstanding
supply chain students, and other company partners
College Briefs
Ptak and GM Wayne State Supply Chain Competition
The Colorado State
University College
of Business would
like to recognize
several savvy students for taking top
competition honors.
Kaylynn Asmussen,
Angelina Howard,
Kandis LaPonte, and
John Jacobs claimed
first place in the
2013 Ptak Student
Supply Chain Case
Competition. The
team, known as
RamBiz, made an
impression with
their quick decisionmaking efforts
and ability to solve the case problem. “They
showed lots of collaboration, commitment,
and professionalism throughout the entire
process,” says Professor Paul Vanderspek, the
team’s advisor.
In a separate competition, Thomas
McCahan, Ryan Cudd, Josh Johnson, and
Angelina Howard earned top honors (placing
in the top five) in the General Motors/
Wayne State University Supply Chain Case
Generation Y Conference
Competition held in Detroit, Mich. “This
competition helped prepare me for future
opportunities by presenting us with a realworld case and a short deadline to come up
with a solution,” says Howard. The case study
problem for the competition revolved around
whether General Motors should adopt an
extended-life battery for the new Cadillac
electric vehicle.
Today’s dynamic business environment features the blended talents of a
multigenerational workforce, and it is
important that we respect and seek to
understand each generation’s special
characteristics and vantage points. The
Why Hire Gen-Y Conference seeks
to dispel myths and share ideas about
how to understand, attract, hire, and
work with Generation Y talent. The
conference will be held in the Hilton of
Fort Collins July 23-25, 2014. For more
information visit genyconference.org.
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS | MAKE A DIFFERENCE 17
Rosemond Desir, assistant accounting professor
2014 Best Teacher
Professor Rosemond Desir’s face lights up with excitement. “I think this honor of being
selected by the students is tremendous,” says Desir. He leans forward and rests his forearms
against his desk. “I’ve been really happy. And I just think if you do the right thing and you
care about the students that will definitely show.” His office is cozy, and family photos fill
the walls. The space is a welcoming environment to talk. Students drop in to chat about
their futures and classes. They come just to visit with a man who inspires them.
Every year, the Colorado State University Alumni Association honors professors and
teachers with the Best Teacher Award. Students, alumni, faculty, and staff submit nominations for committee review. The selection committee – also including student, alumni,
faculty, and staff – selects six winners. This is the 17th year the award has been given.
“I love the students. I love the school. I love the idea of teaching people who are
really interested,” says Desir. “I think CSU students appreciate learning a lot more than
other students I’ve seen. They come here, and they want to learn. They ask questions. They
are passionate about what we teach them.” He says many students come into his introduction to financial accounting class and express their dislike or discomfort with accounting.
“They are pretty honest,” he says. His warm and inviting face smiles in a knowing way as
he reminisces about how many of those same students come to him and say, “I’m seriously
thinking about accounting.”
Desir, originally from Haiti, moved to New York City for college as a transfer stuRosemond Desir
dent. After earning his Bachelor of Science in finance from St.
John’s University, he worked as a securities operations analyst
for Salomon Smith Barney. While completing his MBA from
Fordham University as a part-time student, Desir worked as a
senior accountant for Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield. He also
Cultivating Colorado Grant
worked as a business analyst for Home Box Office (HBO) and as
Cultivating Colorado, one of eight projects selected from 73 applicaa senior financial analyst for Merrill Lynch. Then Desir realized
tions, won a $157,000 grant from the Colorado State University Syshe wanted to teach.
tem Venture Capital Fund. A portion of the funding is earmarked
“When I’m explaining concepts that others find useful
to help supply rural communities with entrepreneurship training.
for their career, I feel really good about it,” he says. Desir went
College of Business management professor Bill Shuster says, “The
to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst where he earned
problem is large businesses are starting to become consolidated,
his Ph.D. in accounting in 2008. In the same year, he accepted a
where a few buy a lot of organics, but growers and suppliers of
position at CSU as an assistant professor of accounting.
organics are relatively small, fragmented, and harder to find.” AcDesir attended the April 28 Best Teacher Award dincording to the proposal, organic sales account for more than three
ner and ceremony with his wife, Marie, and their three sons,
percent of total U.S. food sales, and industry experts forecast growth
­Rosemond Jr., Rosendy, and Oliver.
more than nine percent. Shuster sums it up best: “The most exciting
thing is this really benefits CSU and the land-grant mission, because
we are creating value, and everyone wins.”
18 COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
Patricia Ryan Earns Excellence Award
Patricia Ryan, a professor in the Department of Finance and Real Estate for nearly 15
years, was recognized with the Excellence in
Undergraduate Teaching award. The Governing Board of the Colorado State University
system selects only one teacher each year for
this prestigious honor. “Dr. Ryan exemplifies
the caliber of faculty who are part of Colorado State,” says Dorothy Horrell, chair of the
Board. As further testimony to her building a
national reputation for instructional excel-
lence, Ryan was
invited to teach at
Harvard University
last summer. Ryan
hopes to develop
new and lasting
relationships with
students and faculty at Harvard and looks
forward to bringing those experiences back to
CSU.
They wear it well
The Career Management Center’s newest ‘team members’ embody College’s values
The College of Business Career Management Center and Macy’s are helping students launch
careers with confidence and style. Two Macy’s mannequins recently joined the CMC team – with
support and a granted leave of absence from Macy’s, of course – as ambassadors for the College’s
Professional Development Fund.
The mannequins provide a light-hearted way to draw attention to a very important student
initiative. Bottom line: Money from the fund might mean deserving students can feel as good about
the shine on their interview shoes as the shine on their diplomas and resumes. The fund lets students focus on their talents and not
on how to afford interview clothes.
The striking models turn
heads and grab attention, and that’s
the point. “Our mannequins offer
students life-size examples of appropriate dress,” says Sue Schell, CMC
director. “We even label specific areas
to highlight typical mistakes students
make when dressing for interviews
and professional events. We are
proud to level the playing field for
students who may otherwise not have
the same opportunities.”
Interested in supporting the
Professional Development Fund?
Contact the CMC at (970) 491-1540.
The Blue Ocean Enterprises Challenge
is a collaboration between Blue Ocean
Enterprises and Colorado State University’s Institute for Entrepreneurship
within the College of Business.
The challenge aims to bring the best
college entrepreneurs, innovative
startups, and growing companies into
one inspirational competition. The
Blue Ocean Enterprises Challenge will
award a grand prize of $250,000 and is
the richest competition of its kind in
Colorado. The main competition will
be held May 23-24 in Fort Collins and
will bring together some of the most
influential trailblazers from the nation’s
entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Kurt Hoeven, CEO, Blue Ocean
Holdings, and Charisse Bowen,
managing director of the Institute of
Entrepreneurship, make plans for the
Blue Ocean Enterprises Challenge.
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS | MAKE A DIFFERENCE 19
Cans Around the Oval
The College of Business and the Dean’s
Student Leadership Council joined forces to
collect 94,784 pounds of food during the 26th
annual Cans Around the Oval food donation drive. Between monetary donations and
canned goods, the College contributed more
than a third of the event’s total collections. The
annual event is sponsored by CSU’s Student
Leadership, Involvement, and Community
Engagement office.
U.S.A. Pro Cycling Challenge
In Summer 2013, Colorado State University and the College of Business sponsored the third annual U.S. Pro Challenge, known as America’s Race, and Fort Collins hosted the second-to-last stage
of the race. The sponsorship meant international exposure for CSU because NBC broadcasted 23
hours of race coverage, giving the world a glimpse at our world-class university.
Veterinary Management Institute
The Veterinary Management Institute, designed specifically for veterinary
professionals, is a collaboration between the American Animal Hospital Association and the Center for Professional Development and Business Research
in the College of Business at Colorado State University. Founded in 1990, the
VMI is an executive-level, comprehensive program that offers more than 83
hours of continuing education to professionals in veterinary fields. CSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Biological Sciences ranks third in the nation
(according to U.S. News and World Report), and is home to the Veterinary
Teaching Hospital and Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratories. For more information, contact the Center for Professional Development and Business Research
at CPDBR@business.colostate.edu.
20 COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
EMBA Travels to Kenya
The 2012-2013 cohort of the Executive MBA
program in Denver traveled to Kenya to deliver 200 pounds of medical supplies to Mothers’ Mercy clinic and the Jacaranda orphanage
outside of Nairobi. The MBA students took
the mission of the College literally and made
a difference in the lives of 20 young girls in
the orphanage and the countless patrons of
the Mothers’ Mercy clinic. One of the students
on the trip, Sarah Tuft, spoke of her experience distributing the supplies. “The clinic had
people lined up outside who clearly needed
help,” Tuft says. “It was great to be able to provide a small piece of help in what seems like a
very difficult medical world.”
Your best investment...
You.
Enhance your skills with business
education designed for professionals.
www.biz.colostate.edu/PDBR | CPDBR@business.colostate.edu | (970) 491-1885
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS | MAKE A DIFFERENCE 21
U.S. News & World Report ranks
CSU’s part-time MBA program
No. 31 in the nation for 2015
– the #1 program in Colorado
22 COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
You’re One Degree away from a lifetime
of knowing you made the right choice.
More professionals choose an MBA from Colorado State University over any other accredited MBA
program in Colorado. Choice matters. CSU’s College of Business lets you decide how and when you
learn best. So whether you choose the classroom in Fort Collins, the executive catered experience in
Downtown Denver, or the online Universal Classroom – you’ll be making the right choice.
Start your journey at csuMBA.com
Denver | Fort Collins | Online
CSU polo champ pins future
on a business degree
Kareem Rosser has racked up a string of
successes playing the sport of kings. Once an
8-year-old boy looking for a way out of his
violent Philadelphia neighborhood, Rosser
would become Colorado State University’s
polo team captain.
When the CSU junior first climbed on a
horse more than a decade ago, he understood
the synergy between man and beast, and
that moment would be the beginning of his
journey with the sport that would tame and
perfect his natural talents.
Days spent mucking out the dusty barn
in Fairmont Park – home to the Work to Ride
program for underprivileged youth – turned
to days spent winning polo championships. In
2011, Rosser was named No. 1 all-star player,
while leading his team to victory and claiming
the National Interscholastic Polo Championship title. Rosser’s team was the first AfricanAmerican team to win that title.
24 Polo has taken Rosser around the world.
He has played charity matches in Nigeria
and competed in China. ESPN and Sports
Illustrated have taken notice. Last spring, he
was selected for a spot on the U.S.P.A.’s youth
development team and invited to spend the
summer working and riding at the elite Flying
H Polo Club in Big Horn, Wyo.
Despite his track record, Rosser doesn’t
count on a future as a professional polo player.
“Every kid dreams big and says, ‘Hey,
that will be me one day’, ” says Rosser. “It’s
great to always be optimistic and believe in
yourself, but very few make it … I don’t want
to be that person without a plan … where all I
had was polo.”
COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
“Working hard has given me the
opportunity to be here at CSU
and to travel the world to meet
people and make connections.”
– KAREEM ROSSER
His back-up plan: earn a business
degree.
That’s a smart decision, according to
Boone Stribling, a former professional polo
player and polo manager at Flying H ranch
and other properties.
“These athletes all want to be [professionals] and play all over the world. My advice
to them is ‘Don’t be the pro, be the sponsor,’ ”
says Stribling, referring to the person who
has the wealth to support a polo team. “Go to
school, get your education. When you get to
the end of your polo career, unless you have
a degree or a back-up plan, you’re going to
starve.”
Rosser has achieved his goals by counting on his talents beyond a natural affinity for
polo. He is disciplined, and he’s mastered the
tenacity, teamwork, and leadership skills he
needs to excel on and off the field.
His determination made him the first
in his family to graduate from high school.
He earned a full-ride scholarship to a military
preparatory and boarding school and studied
in upstate New York before transferring to
Colorado State in 2012. He’s the proud big
brother to Daymar, a sibling poised to carry
on the family polo tradition.
“Working hard has given me the opportunity to be here at CSU and to travel the world
to meet people and make connections,” says
Rosser. “I am going to contact these people,
and I hope they remember me as a hard-working individual who wants to do well.”
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS | MAKE A DIFFERENCE 25
Great Reads
In the busyness of our lives, it’s hard to find time
for normal everyday tasks, let alone a dense,
wisdom-filled business book. How often does
a book look great, usually a memorable catch
phrase on the front, only to be full of false promises or bore you to sleep? Your time is far too
valuable to be browsing through the hundreds
of business books available. You want to reserve
your time for only the best books, those that will
improve your financial, entrepreneurial, and leadership skills. This is where we come in. Here at
the College of Business, three of our esteemed
faculty and staff took on the task of reviewing
three of The New York Times Book Review best
sellers. Here’s what they had to say:
26 Total Money Makeover
by Dave Ramsey
Grade: Pass
Reviewer: Audra Brickner, Executive Director
of Gift Planning for CSU
Given that the average indebted American
household owes more than $15,000 on credit
cards, David Ramsey’s crusade to end the culture of debt is a bold one. This book challenges
individuals and families to decrease their reliance on debt (with a goal of being completely
debt-free!), to manage their finances, and to
plan for the future. While the concepts are not
new and Ramsey’s strategies could be questioned, the heart of the book is solid. It is written
for those who have created a debt crisis in their
households, not for those who already have
firm financial footing. Ramsey’s “Baby Steps”
approach is simple and straight-forward; he
encourages families to focus on saving $1,000
cash, then move to pay off
debt, then save for 3-6 months
of expenses. The program continues to build as readers delve
deeper into the book.
While not perfect advice, it
is a seven-step guide for those
not financially savvy. As U.S.
debt inches toward $17 trillion,
Ramsey’s primary audience is
hungry for advice on navigating
COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
consumer debt, auto loans, student loans, and
mortgages. Ramsey is keenly aware of how
poor money management affects relationships
with spouses, children, and family. Though
his advice sometimes flies in the face of some
financial experts, Ramsey’s chatty, approachable style is easy to read and digest. His
Bible-based principles may not be relevant to
all audiences but are worth the read if you are
in financial straits and looking for an easy-tofollow plan.
The Leadership Contract
by Vince Molinaro
Grade: Pass
Reviewer: Sara Daubert, Leadership Programs
According The Leadership Contract by Vince
Molinaro, recent studies show that only 7 percent of employees have trust and confidence
in their senior leaders (Page 41). How can we
ever get our organizations to succeed if so few
employees believe in their senior leaders?
The basic premise of the book lays out four
terms and conditions of a leadership contract
and asks leaders to make a conscious decision
to lead; the contract is a personal and moral
commitment – one that business executives
make if they are interested in becoming great
leaders.
The terms of the leadership contract are:
1. Leadership is a decision. Make it.
2. Leadership is an obligation. Step up.
3. Leadership is hard. Get tough.
4. Leadership is a community. Connect.
The book is designed for executives,
managers, and emerging leaders and offers
practical suggestions about adopting new leadership policies while offering real-life examples
of current leadership challenges. The book
would be best
suited for managers and emerging
leaders, as some
of the leadership
examples are
more remedial.
Also, some of the
leadership examples tend to be
lengthy and lack
relevance; however, the book is an easy read and would be
beneficial for those interested and motivated to
engage in a deeper level of self-reflection going
forward with their own leadership goals.
The Lean Startup
by Eric Ries
Grade: Fail
Reviewer: Shandi Pettine
Director of Development
Eric Ries, successful software entrepreneur,
business consultant, and speaker, provides
some interesting
examples on how
he made marginally profitable
companies, including his own, wildly
successful. Too often, entrepreneurs
are convinced
their idea/product
could be successful “if only.” If only
they or their team worked harder; if only they
made the product cheaper; if only they allowed
consumers to try the product; or a combination
of the above.
Ries speaks to the difficulty most entrepreneurs, including himself, have in accepting
consumer criticism of their product. Entrepreneurs, by their very nature, are “leap of faith”
assumers. Their mentality is that if you build it
as they envision it, the customer will flock with
open arms to embrace the idea. He openly admits that any consumer interview of his website
that wasn’t positive would be dismissed as “not
his target customer.” It wasn’t until he accepted
all feedback as informative that his company
finally became profitable. Alternatively, adopting any and all suggested changes creates a
production nightmare that cannot be financially
analyzed and wastes human capital. So how
does a business determine when to pivot and
which pivots result in positive revenue?
A build-measure-learn feedback loop takes
advantage of consumer feedback. Businesses
can then make the changes necessary to
increase demand. The book focuses on “pivoting” or adapting the business by using smallbatch customer feedback tested using lean
manufacturing principles, including kanban,
to create a feedback optimization loop. Ries
explains how to identify pivot points and how to
test each pivot through analyzing sales revenue
using actionable metrics.
However, this book will be disappointing to
most business readers. Information in several chapters was mind-numbingly repetitive,
making one wonder if the author was trying
to produce a specific number of pages just
to crank out a book. The bottom line for this
reader – This book would have made a better
essay describing lean startup concepts.
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS | MAKE A DIFFERENCE 27
The Company We Keep
The College wants to thank the following speakers and guests at the College of Business.
42more LLC
Hal Kruth
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Alfalfa’s Market
Mark Retzloff
Chairman of the Board
AMBA
Jake Henderson
Regional Vice President
American Airlines
Michele Cutler
New Hire Instructor and Evaluator
Anschutz Exploration
Margot Timbel
Senior Vice President
A-Train Marketing and
Communications
Anne Farrell
Content Specialist
Ball Corporation
Andrew Strickenburg
Manager, Corporate Planning
BBR Advisory Group
Dan Bruder
Chief Executive Officer and Chair of
Vistage International Inc.
Begin Again Toys
David Bowen
Co-Founder
Chris Clemmer
Co-Founder
Birko
Kelly Green
President
Bizmo.com
Brad Florin
Chief Executive Officer
Blue Ocean Holdings LLC
Curt Richardson
Co-Founder and Chairman
BNSF
Dean Smith
Sales Manager
Brinkman Partners
Kevin Brinkman
Co-Founder and Managing Broker
Burns Marketing
Communications
Laurie Steele
Senior Vice President and Client
Services Director
28 Cam-Keeper LLC
Jana Glanzer
Chief Executive Officer and
Co-Founder
Capital Value Advisors
David Tolson
Managing Director
Chris Younger
Managing Director
Center for Cowboy Ethics and
Leadership
Jim Owen
Author and Founder
Kent Noble
Executive Director
Center for New Energy
Economy
Maury Dobbie
Assistant Director
Centura Health
Melissa Royle
Human Resources
CereScan
John Kelley
President and Chief Executive
Officer
Chalk Line Solutions
Weston Smith
President
Chipper’s Lanes
Matt Hoeven
Owner
ChoosePeople
Kris Boesch
Chief Executive Officer
Chris Simpson and Associates
Chris Simpson
President
Ciber
Sean Radcliffe
Senior Vice President and General
Counsel
City of Fort Collins, Colo.
John Voss
Controller/Assistant Financial
Officer
City of Golden, Colo.
Jeff Hansen
Finance Director
COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
Coach Training Alliance
Chris Osborn
Chief Executive Officer and Coach
Denver University
Brett Marshbanks
Desktop Systems Administrator
Jukebox Quilts
Kelly Abbott
Owner
Coca-Cola
Rhona Applebaum
Vice President, Chief Science and
Health Officer
Jessica Borchers
Third-Year Law Student
Jim Abbott
Owner
Enterprise Holdings
Alecia Schramm
Regional Talent Acquisition
Kaiser Permanente
Jandel Allen-Davis
Vice President, Government and
External Relations
Lisa Wellington
Director of Marketing Strategy and
Insights
Colorado General Assembly
Natalie Mullis
Chief Economist
Colorado State Bank and Trust
William J. Farrell
Senior Vice President/Commercial
Banking
Colorado State Forestry Service
Sara Colorosa
Human Resources Manager
Colorado State University
Joe Sparks
Budget Analyst
Rick Miranda
Provost and Executive Vice
President
Mike Martin
Chancellor
Colorado State University
Library
Louise Feldmann
Assistant Professor/Business
Librarian
Community Funded
Jill Brito
Vice President of Sales
Corning Inc.
Mark Newhouse
Former Senior Vice President
and Director of Business
Development
Curian Capital
Oksana Doncila
Director
DaVita
David Shapiro
Chief Special Counsel
Estes Park Trail
Mike Romero
Publisher
Feisty Spirits
David Monahan
Co-Founder
Forest Stewardship Council
International
Michael Conroy
Chairman of the Board
Kennedy and Coe LLC
Danielle Jordan
Associate
KPMG
Jason Waldron
Partner
Kyjen
Kyle Hansen
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Forney Industries Inc.
Christoph Schindler
Procurement Manager
KWR Consulting
Ken Rinkenberger
Manager
Graebel Moving
Tom Sims
Senior Vice President
Leprino Foods
Brad Cunningham
Transportation Manager
Hach Company
Jeremiah Way
Project Manager
Lessman and Associates
Brett Lessman
President
Hewlett-Packard
Peter Boyle
Director of Human Resources
Liberty Media Corporation
Mark D. Carleton
Senior Vice President
Curt Richards
Manager, Semiconductor
Procurement
Liberty Media
Mark Carleton
Senior Vice President
Home State Bank
David Besch
Vice President
Lockheed Martin
Laura Kolb
Human Resources Business Partner
Impact Hub-Boulder
Rich Hoops
Co-Founder and Board Member
Mad Greens
John Montgomery
Chief Financial Officer
Integris Partners
Stephen van den Heever
Managing Director
Martensen IP
Michael Martensen
President
J3 Leadership Group
Jan Rutherford
Author
MGL Capital Partners
Mike Long
Owner
Jamison Day
Independent Consultant
MoCo Development Company
Michael Suchowski
Chief Executive Officer
National Council of Textile
Organizations
Augustine Tantillo
President
New Belgium Brewery
Jenny Briggs
Director of Human Resources
Northwestern Mutual
Ryan Yoder
Managing Director of Northern
Colorado and Southern Wyoming
Group
OppenheimerFunds Inc.
Susan Zimmerman
Senior Vice President, Human
Resources
OtterBox
Greg Goble
Sustainability Specialist
Robb Copp
Products and Branding
Jay Fenik
Field Marketing
Paladina Health
Karen Hjerleid
Vice President Business
Development
Performance Point Solutions
Virg Setzer
Certified Executive Coach
Philanthropiece
Libby Cook
Founder and Executive Director
SpokesBUZZ Fort Collins
Caitlin Solsky
Educational Coordinator
Poudre Valley Hospital
Kevin Unger
President and Chief Executive
Officer
State of Colorado
Aaron Kennedy
Chief Marketing Officer
Pricewaterhouse Coopers
Don Keller
Partner, Center for Board
Governance
Nathan R. Bennett
Manager, Assurance
Ray Vigil
Founder of Executive Learning
Innovations
Royal Gold Inc.
Stefan L. Wenger
Chief Financial Officer and
Treasurer
Schroer Capital LP
John Schroer
Chartered Financial Analyst,
Principal
Smart2Market
Pete Wells
President and Chief Executive
Officer
John Ricks
Associate Director of Tourism
Fred Joseph
Commissioner of Securities and
Insurance
Stuff’n Mallows, Fort Collins
Specialty Foods
James Schrack
Co-Founder and Owner
Paul Jenkins
Co-Founder and Owner
Tandem Select
Katie Zwetzig
Owner
Target Corporation
Lauren O’Conner
Executive Team Leader
Terry Thompson
Former Chief Financial Officer of
Microsoft Corporation
Hilton - Fort Collins, Colorado • July 23-25, 2014
Embrace the
talents of Gen Y
to secure your
company’s future.
REGISTER NOW! www.genyconference.org
Nationally-renowned speakers and authors
Breakout sessions
Millennial panel
Networking events
The Ethics and Compliance
Officers Association
Keith Darcy
Executive Director
The Marketing Department
Konan Hauser
Owner/Managing Partner
TIAA-Cerf Financial Services
Nick Stolatis
Senior Director, Global
Sustainability and Enterprise
Initiatives
Toolbox Creative
Dawn Putney
Chief Executive Officer
Traut Core Knowledge
Elementary School
Mark Wertheimer
Principal
United States Air Force
Academy
Lieutenant Colonel Timothy J. Pettit
Director of Research for Department
of Management
University of Colorado Denver
Jan Rutherford
Professor
University of Colorado Health
Mark Kennedy
Human Resources Business Partner
US Bank
David Bruni
Market President
Village Capital
Victoria Fram
Director of Operations
Vion Investments
Larry Curran
Vice President
VMware Inc.
Tim Engler
Technical Support Engineer
Vodafone Americas
Anna Ewing
Chief Financial Officer
Walmart
Andrea Thomas
Senior Vice President of
Sustainability
Weston Distance Learning Inc.
Joy Davis
Human Resources
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