E-Week service project on April 6th

As part of E-Week, on April 6, students will have the chance to help create hygiene kits that will be distributed in Mexico.

The Jon M. Huntsman School of Business has teamed up with the non-profit organizations Charity Anywhere and LDS Humanitarian Services to put on this service project. Charity Anywhere and LDS Humanitarian Services are supplying materials to create the 3,000 kits that students will assemble.

The main tables will be on the Quad but there will be other locations around campus so everyone can get involved.

We invite you to take a couple minutes out of your day on April 6 between 8 am and 3 pm to assemble a kit that provides basic necessities to those in need.

Carlie Pennington

March 11: The Great Silk Market

Shopping, shopping, and more shopping! The famous Silk Market is a lot of fun. As several of the guys said, “Your adrenaline gets pumping”. It is fun to go into the market and bargain with the Chinese people. They are very good at what they do and they are very good actors. But beware lest they fool you. Most of us paid too much, relatively speaking, on our first purchases. Going in the second day definitely gives you an advantage, especially when you have a big group. You can know what the good deals are on the products. By giving it time and knowing the price you want, you can get them down to what you want to pay. We all came out with a variety of goods. The experience for all was exciting, tiring, and a whole lot of fun. To further the excitement, we have a variety of gifts and goods for ourselves, friends, and family at extremely low prices. Who couldn’t be happy with those results?

March 9th: Toyota

Everyone at Utah State seems to have caught on to the great hype of Toyota. In class we read “The Toyota Way”, we talk about JIT, we discuss how Toyota rose to the top, and we learn of their philosophies. I feel like Toyota has been drilled into our brains throughout business school. But experiencing Toyota gives renewed awe for their greatness. Going to the factory made me realize how efficient and productive they truly have become. It amazed me to see how quickly they put together cars. Each employee had the system down and knew exactly what they were doing.They had layouts and visual cues for everything.When driving their carts they knew exactly where to stop because the lines were drawn out for them. They even had lines drawn around the places their plants could go. Besides everything being drawn out, it was very organized and clean. No wonder they can produce so many cars per day. Being able to experience Toyota was worth all the hype we heard about it. I would back them up any day.

Janita Anderson speaks

We had a speaker, Janita Anderson, from the Steven R. Covey Group come and speak to the GWGC participants about finding their voices in the work they do. After the presentation, Janita got a standing ovation! We would like to thank her for coming and here are some photos from the event:

Janita introduced matching your passions, talents, and conscience together.

Saddie Crabb said she had an eye opening realizing that, "when you're the scarcity mindset it's harder discovering jobs that match your voice."

Hong Kong: Disneyland

March 7th, 2011

It is the small things that make Hong Kong Disneyland unique. First things first, everything is smaller there. The park has only three “themed” areas, all of the rides can be ridden within three hours, and even the ride itself is built smaller with less leg room. The greatest part about the small factor, however, is the short lines. No line was longer than 15 minutes. Surprisingly, the longest ride was not for the solo roller coaster, Space Mountain, either. The longest lines were for the Jungle River Guide or the shows. Much of the emphasis in Hong Kong Disneyland is also put on picture taking with the Characters. The Chinese people love to take pictures and everyone seemed to have a camera on them.

Food differences were apparent as well. You can purchase squid, fish (which some say looks like eyes on a stick), and other Chinese snack foods. It is also surprising to see the number of adults in the park outnumbered the children. Though this may have been due to the fact that it was Monday and kids were in school. They also had to present instructions in three different languages, English, Cantonese, and Mandarin. Nevertheless, the foundation, principles, and philosophies of Hong Kong Disneyland are the same as in the United States. It is all about the Characters, building “Disney Moments”, and making people smile. What else can you expect from the happiest place on earth?

Honeywell Executive Advice

In this video, USU and Huntsman School alumnus Mark James provides some advice to students and young professionals. Tell us what you think in the comment section below.

Kent Alder, CEO of TTM Technologies

Here's a great, short video featuring Kent Alder, '74 Finance, '80 Accounting. In this video, Kent gives some meaningful advice on a successful career.

Business Students seeking help with book drive

Books for Hope, a group of USU business students, is partnering with the Cache Valley Reading Council, the Logan City Youth Council and Americorps volunteers to collect books for the English Language Center, the Whittier Community Center, the Family Information and Resource Center and other Cache Valley non-profit groups.

The book drive will run March 14-31. Look for the book drop locations at USU, various elementary school, Logan High School, and other community sites. Dictionaries and children's books are especially needed but books of all kinds will be appreciated. A door-to-door book collection drive will be held on Saturday, March 26.

For more information and to learn how you can help refugee and other families improve their reading skills through this book collection drive, please email Tom Williams at tomwwil@gmail.com or visit http://cachevalleyreadingcouncil.blogspot.com/2011/03/book-drive.html

Huntsman MBA students in China

Day One: Arrive in Hong Kong

My first impression of Hong Kong is a mixture between New York City and Mexico. On the streets, there are people constantly approaching you trying to recruit your business, like in Mexico. The most frequent sellers are ladies trying to sell you on buying a foot massage. There are also men dressed up in their suits trying to get you to buy a suit of your own. The New York flare comes from the many exquisite shops, from being surrounded by tall buildings, from the odd smells when you turn the corner, and from the numberless taxis cruising through the narrow streets.

Our first adventure was getting some real food. Not anymore airplane food. The restaurant atmosphere, though similar in many respects, had its own distinct flare. When we first arrived at our restaurant we wanted to know how long we would need to wait. Even though there were several people waiting before us, they worked on getting us a table for 15 right away. As we walk into the restaurant, several employees stop to give you a slight head bow and show their respect to you. Once seated, you could order multiple times throughout the meal. We ordered dumplings, hot and sour soup, egg fried rice, and other authentic Chinese dishes. Many aspects of the meal were very easy including ordering, the service, and the no-tip philosophy. Once an entree was ready, they delivered it. You could begin eating and once the other entrées were done they would be added to the food already out on the table. The challenge for me came when I tried to use the chopsticks. Years of avoiding the chopsticks at Panda Express caught up to me. It was difficult to get a hold of the food. In fact, I still have yet to figure it out. Nevertheless, we had a great first meal. Hong Kong is going to be fabulous, I can already tell and we have just begun.