Jon M. Huntsman School of Business

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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

"Find a gray-haired mentor"

Justin Gold could write a book on being a passionate person. From my initial greeting and throughout his lecture his passion was contagious. He was not only passionate about his business but also about his interests, hobbies and family. My experience with Justin was not limited to the lecture as I was able to be his host throughout the night. The following points are concepts I learned from not only his lecture but also from my interaction with him throughout the night.

Justin Gold, Founder and CEO of Justin's Nut Butter
Know who you are: When I met Justin, he was in a food distributor trade show. I noticed Justin was unique as I walked around the room looking at the different booths and their reps. He was the youngest one in the room but looked comfortable in talking with the other vendors. When I introduced myself he greeted me as one would a good friend. I did not feel any ego or superiority. Throughout the night he stayed true to this character and was comfortable in his skin and with his story.

Let your supply chain feel some ownership: When Justin was trying to get into stores he regularly went to the buyers and asked their opinion of the product. He asked for their feedback on everything from the recipe to the packaging. While he did not always implement the feedback he would later go back to the buyer and ask for their feedback again and again. By doing this, he built a relationship, and the buyer felt he/she had given input to the final product they finally would decide to place on the shelves.

Find a gray-haired mentor: The right mentor is one that has time and is interested in giving back to the next generation. His mentors have been the key to his success as they have unlocked doors to capital, determining strategy and building distribution networks. An interesting experience occurred on our drive to the campus. Justin spent a half hour on the phone with another entrepreneur giving advice on how to get into the market. After the call he said that he has about five of those calls a week and rarely hears again from them. A mentor is someone that is a long-term relationship and not a one-time event like these calls.

Do the things you love now: The life that gives meaning to the rest of life has to be nurtured and scheduled. The activities that you love can all to easily be pushed to the side. He was tempted to live at the office all his waking hours but his mentor told him to keep doing the things he loved because he risked forgetting how to do those things. I recognize this personally because I am doing this now with school. I have not been hiking in far too long. I keep telling myself there is no time and push it off.

Start with the end in mind: Justin has a strategic plan on where he wants to take the company. There are two general plans for his company’s future. He wants to build the company into a national brand and keep running it as long as it is fun. The other plan is to build it to the point that he can have a healthy exit sale. He knows that to have the second exit strategy he needs to currently be in contact with companies that could potentially purchase his company.

- Bryce Huff

Monday, February 27, 2012

Don't let thank you notes go extinct

Some members of my family really like to talk.

Last week, my aunt had a “quick question” for me. If this were one of my siblings, the conversation would have been over in 30 seconds. Actually, it never would have taken place, because we would have done it via text.

However, my aunt knows I am looking for a big-boy job and she took this opportunity to give me advice. For half an hour.

I am not complaining. I am really grateful for her help. Most of it was stuff I had heard before and am trying to implement.

Paul Lewis Siddoway
There was one thing which I thought was outdated, but which I decided to look into.

Maybe it is just my generation, but except for wedding presents, I do not know anyone who sends out thank you cards. Hardly anyone uses standard mail anymore. Everything is done electronically.

However, I found an article which said sending a paper thank you note through the mail after an interview may be the factor that sets you apart from the rest and lands you a job.

The article was mostly about following up after an interview, but they took a significant chunk talking about thank you notes. And not only sending them to the person who interviewed you, but also to anyone in the company who helped you find out about the job and get the interview.

Thank them for their time and effort, reemphasize your interest in the position and how you can help fill their needs, and maybe ask a follow up question (especially if you send a written note) to encourage a continuing conversation.

However, whether you follow up the interview with a thank you note, email, telephone call, or in person, I would encourage you to not follow my aunt’s example and keep it concise.

- Paul Lewis Siddoway

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Huntsman Hall will serve solutions for the hungry

As I have visited business schools across the country, I noticed one thing that nearly all of them have in common – they offer their students a place to get something to eat. The only exception was a business school that was right next door to the university’s student union where there were several places to get food. And the buildings were connected by a tunnel.

Ken Snyder
We discussed this with our student building committee. The students unanimously voiced their opinion that they want to see some sort of student café as part of the new building.

So Huntsman Hall will have, right next to the student commons area, a café. I have some ideas about what I’d like to see in that café that were sparked by what I observed at other business schools. The approach I’d like to see is all about offering variety and efficiency at the same time.

Imagine this: you walk in the door and immediately there is a counter where you can order a sandwich or something hot. One need not stand there waiting, however, because just beyond that would be a convenience store of sorts where you could buy fresh fruit, candy, yogurt, granola bars, drinks, ice cream and all matter of prepackaged foods. It would all be designed so you could go in, quickly pick out what you want, and then head to the cash registers to get checked out. And yes, I did say cash registers, plural. The basic idea is that there would be offerings for those craving a more substantive sandwich and there would be a wide variety of food available for those on the run. Think of it as a convenience store and a Panini café all rolled into one.

This café will be about 1,400-square-feet. It will be next to the student commons area so that teams of students who wanted to meet together and grab a bite to eat could do so. The café can double as a student team meeting area. Our students say they really hate leaving the business building to try to find some food somewhere else on campus. Our new café should not only provide them with a source of food, but also satisfy some of the need for team meeting space as well.

- Ken Snyder

- Ken Snyder

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

"Angel" visits Huntsman School

When someone usually thinks of an angel, they might picture a halo and wings. What you may not know is that recent Lectures in Entrepreneurship Speaker Gary Gigot is a different type of angel, which is one that invests their own funds to provide capital for a business start-up.

Gary Gigot
Gary Gigot was on the bottom floor of Microsoft and Visio Corporation’s meteoric rises where he managed their advertising and PR. But after a successful run in corporate America, he said, “at this stage in [his] career, [he] could not work in a large company … because there are too many things and too many committees and [he] is much more interested in building things and doing things on [his] own.”

He also shared the reasons he has discovered that have led him to continue to pursue and help others pursue careers in entrepreneurship in the following list:

Reasons for being an Entrepreneur
• Independence
• Have an idea
• Questionable fit in large organizations
• Comfortable with risk
• Cash flow and/or value creation focused
• Self-learner/constant curiosity

Gary was adamant about the need for our society, in our current economy, to return to its roots of hard work and diligence in creating valuable enterprises from smart individuals.

“I got asked by Notre Dame Magazine to offer up a commentary on ‘Where are the new jobs going to come from’ … I’ve thought about it and thought about it with the people that I know, and I realized that people need to learn to be self-reliant again,” David said. “People need to realize that professionals and the jobs they’ve had before may be gone out of the U.S. economy for good. People that are getting smarter are going up and recreating themselves with a new business. ”

He also shared his wisdom in what to strive for when one gets to the point where they are looking to have their company bought.

“One of the truisms in selling companies is that ‘companies are never sold, they’re bought,’ which means you want to be in the position where the buyer is pursuing you, you are not putting the company up for sale.”

- Rob Goates

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Utah State Should Bolt the Western Athletic Conference

The Western Athletic Conference is about to have a major makeover.   With Boise State, Fresno State, Nevada and Hawaii all leaving, the conference is about to look a whole lot different.

Last week, long-time WAC Commissioner Karl Benson jumped ship to become the Commissioner of the Sun Belt Conference.  Seems like a lateral move on its surface, but it’s actually an upgrade when you look at what is coming into the WAC as replacements for the “Fleeing Four”.  Maybe with Benson leaving, we should now say the “Fleeing Five”, including the captain who just jumped off this sinking vessel.

Next year, the WAC will have Utah State, Texas-San Antonio, Texas State, Louisiana Tech, Idaho, New Mexico State, San Jose State, and Denver (non-basketball).    Other school being considered for inclusion in the near future include Louisiana-Lafayette, Sam Houston State, California-Davis, Portland State, Cal-Poly, and as non-football members, Seattle University, Cal-State Bakersfield, and Utah Valley University.

That my friends, is a pretty lousy lineup of conference friends.   No rivals for USU.  No driving-distance opponents.  For all intents, it’s a Division 2 conference.  There isn’t a single opponent in that list that makes me want to jump up and go buy tickets – for football or basketball.   

College teams are in many cases defined by who they are aligned with.  If USU stays in the WAC as it will soon be constructed, its reputation as a Division 1 program will go down the drain.

USU needs to get creative and try to develop a new conference with schools that all are within driving distance of one another.

To qualify as a D-1 Football Subdivision Conference, eight teams are required.  Utah State needs to get on the phone and try to get a new conference constructed of the following schools:

Utah State
Idaho State
Boise State
Colorado State
Wyoming
Air Force Academy
BYU
UNLV

Here are the advantages.  All would be within driving distance of one another.  There are natural rivalries in place.  They would have enough members to be included in the Football Bowl Subdivision.  Travel expenses would be much lower, for both the teams and fans.  And most importantly, attendance at games would increase significantly.

Looking at Utah State football attendance over the past eleven years, home games against these proposed conference opponents have averaged 19,893.  Home games against the “New WAC” conference opponents have averaged 12,701.  Even BYU saw about 7,000 fewer fans at their home games last season against the distant “WAC” opponents of Idaho and New Mexico State.  Do we really want to keep having less than 50% of seats filled at Romney Stadium?  That’s not a “college football” experience in a half-empty stadium every Saturday afternoon!

Yes, there would be some challenges.  BYU would need to keep their TV contract with ESPN for sure, making a conference TV contract difficult to put together…but not impossible.  It certainly would be worth more than the “new WAC”, where there won’t be a TV contact at all.

If Utah State can’t get a new conference assembled, I suggest their next best option would be to follow BYU into football independence and align in other sports with the WCC.  At least we’d have a decent basketball conference with Gonzaga, St. Mary’s, and BYU, and we could try to schedule football games against more local opponents to drive fan interest and attendance.  Even football home games against Weber State and Southern Utah University have averaged 19,987 fans, a far cry from the 12,701 against WAC opponents.  Anybody with me on this?  What do you think?

Eric D.  Schulz is a Sr. Lecturer and Co-Director of Marketing and Brand Management at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University.  He has worked as Vice President of Marketing for the XFL Football League as well as the Utah Jazz, and has over 20 years of professional sports management experience.

Friday, February 17, 2012

C-USA / MWC Merger and its Impact on Utah State University Football

The world’s biggest college sports conference is coming your way in about 18 months.  Spanning from Hawaii to Central Florida, its 24 members will be strewn across the USA.  Yes sports fans, Fresno State will be in the same conference as Southern Mississippi.  East Carolina will be a conference rival of the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.  Get out the popcorn for these intra-conference rivalries!

So where does this leave Utah State University and its WAC affiliation?  Better off.  This 24-team atrocity is doomed to failure, just like the 16-team WAC experiment flamed out after just two years back in 1998.  USU is better off sitting on the sidelines for this one.

There was this interesting commentary on the C-USA / MWC Merger by Chadd Scott last week.

He proposes for smaller D-1 schools, that rather than trying to compete with the Big Ten, Pac-12, SEC and the likes, they instead create small, boutique conferences …with every team within driving distance. 

Not only would it cut down on travel costs, but it would create more local rivalries.  Does anyone at USU feel strongly when Louisiana Tech rolls into town?  Wouldn’t it be more likely to rev up the engines if Boise State, Idaho State, Utah State, Wyoming, Colorado State, and Air Force Academy were its own conference (and possibly BYU if they were to let them do their own TV deal)?  If a D-2 regional conference had Weber State, Utah Valley University, BYU-Idaho, Southern Utah, Westminster, SLCC, and possibly Dixie? 

Of course, the major college football world is driven by TV money, and the big dollar signs that the top conferences are getting is what is driving the C-USA / MWC merger.  But it won’t work.  Ohio State v. Michigan, USC v. UCLA, LSU v. Alabama…those conference matchups are much more compelling for television than Marshall v. Nevada, New Mexico v. East Carolina, or Alabama-Birmingham v. Colorado State.  The TV deal this new super-conference ends up with won’t amount to much more (if not less), than the current TV monies those conference members now receive.

Just to test this theory, I looked at the attendance figures at Utah State University for the past 64 home football games, dating back to 2000.  Here’s what I found, which supports the “boutique conference” concept:

Average Attendance (All 64 games):  16,507
Avg. Attendance – Boutique Conf. Teams (14 games):  20,826 (+26%)
Avg. Attendance:  D-2 Regionals + Univ. of Utah (9 games): 22,712 (+38%)
And here is the average attendance by longer-distance conference opponents over the years (San Jose State, Nevada, N. Mexico State, Louisiana Tech, Hawaii, Fresno State):  23 games:  12,708 (-23%).

For schools like Utah State, it’s about butts in seats, not TV money.  And when Utah State hosts a more local opponent, there is, on average, an 8,000 person positive swing.  At $25 / ticket, that’s $200,000 more ticket revenue per game…over six home games, an increase in over $1 million dollars.

For Utah State, the best move is to focus on scheduling as many “local” rivals as possible; wait for the implosion of the C-USA / MWC, then be ready to propose the following new boutique conference:

Utah State
Colorado State
Idaho State
Wyoming
Air Force Academy
Boise State
BYU

Then, if Utah State focused its non-conference schedule on including every year two of these:

Weber State
Southern Utah
Utah

That would leave 3 or 4 other non-conference games with which to try to schedule from the “power” conferences. 

The school would make more money, incur smaller travel costs, and fan interest would increase.  Win-Win-Win.

Eric D. Schulz is the co-director of strategic marketing and brand management at the Jon M Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University. Prior to joining the University, he spent five years as Vice-President of Marketing for the Utah Jazz (NBA); he previously was VP of Marketing with the XFL Football League, and served as a general manager in minor league baseball. He can be reached at eric.schulz@usu.edu.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

"Hick from Montana" explains his entrepreneurial path

It seems sort of ironic that an entrepreneur who didn’t even understand he was supposed to be filing tax returns with his first business would eventually join a company that was the first firm to introduce tax preparation software that consumers could use.

Eric Jacobsen
Eric Jacobson, who is now a managing partner with Dolphin Capital, was the Lectures in Entrepreneurship speaker on Feb. 1, and those who attended that night got a very unvarnished, genuine take on the determination, attitude and luck that have made him successful.

He talked about how his first business, launched in college, was sort of a fluke that grew from the fact that he enjoyed a good party. He and his friends would host what he called “insta-parties” where they would play some music, buy some beer, and celebrate just being around.

That led to others asking him to do parties for them, and by the time he graduated he sold a company that had 40 sound systems being put to use all over northern California.

“I started a business with zero money, in fact, tremendously in debt, and ended up selling that business when I graduated for more money than I had ever had in my entire life,” he said.

He encouraged the students there to get a good education and told them being an entrepreneur was not as hard as they might think, if they were tenacious.

“I’m a hick from Montana,” he said. “I grew up in cowboy boots, long hair; racing motorcycles. I am not a prototypical entrepreneur. If I can do it, I’m telling you that anybody in this room can do it.”

He may have called himself a “hick” but he graduated from Stanford and said college is a great place to learn the basics you need to succeed in business but warned the student to never let “school interfere with your education.”

He argued that you don’t need a big investment of outside capital to be successful.

“The reality is that you are much better off if you can do it on your own,” he said.

He told a story of how he first discovered that he didn’t realize he was supposed to be paying taxes when TNT Sound was getting off the ground. Eric then talked about how, after working as an investment banker, he joined a firm called MECA, which created tax preparation software that was eventually sold to H&R Block and is now called Tax Cut.

He said part of being successful is just learning how to sell.

“You are always, always selling,” he said. “Always. It’s not a bad thing in my mind. It’s not an evil thing.”

He said that he has pitched ideas for new ventures that became very successful, despite that fact that others told them they his ideas were awful.

“Trust your gut instinct,” he said. “Your gut instinct as an entrepreneur is generally, very, very good. Push hard. Be tenacious. Figure out how to sell it. If people buy it, then you know you have a good idea.”

He warned that there would be dark days as they tried to be successful. He said the entrepreneurs who have succeeded were the people who “had the ability to never accept failure; to keep powering through it. To say, ‘I believe. Let’s go. We are gonna make it. I’m not stopping.’”

- Steve Eaton

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

"When am I ever going to need this?"

I have been a college student for almost four and a half years now. I have taken classes in subjects from all over the academic spectrum, from history of the civil rights movement (an excellent class, by the way) to social media to calculus II.

Connor Child
In almost every class I have ever taken, I have heard at least one of my classmates complain that the information being taught is worthless as it pertains to practical use. "When am I ever going to need this?"

I can't say that I have never asked this question myself, but I can assure you that I have never had any doubts regarding this matter while attending the Dean's Convocations that are frequently held at the Huntsman School. I know it sounds corny, but I sincerely mean it. Every so often, the Huntsman School will invite a dynamic individual with a wealth of experience to speak to our students and community free of charge. In every instance, the featured speaker has provided me with new insight into how I should approach my education and future career.

This Friday (Feb. 17), Thomas Donaldson will be the Dean's Convocation featured speaker. He will be speaking from 12:30-2:00 p.m. in the auditorium of the business building. Donaldson is a professor at the Wharton School who has a strong background in business ethics. On Friday, he will present on a paper he wrote titled, "Three Ethical Roots of the Economic Crisis."

I can't think of a more time-relevant subject to learn about. I look forward to seeing you there.

- Connor Child

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

The Importance of Brand Strategy

Eric D. Schulz
Procter & Gamble invented the business strategy of “Brand Management”.  Brand management focused attention on product specialization and differentiation instead of business function. By distinguishing the qualities of each brand from all other P&G brands, each would avoid competing with one another by targeting different consumer markets with a different set of benefits.   This was especially important in product categories that the company manufactured several competing brands, like laundry detergent.

Over the years, P&G and the companies that embraced the brand management concept became extremely successful. In the early 1940s, Ted Bates & Company decided to conduct an extensive research study to find out why and reverse engineer the success of these brands. The company researched “successful advertising campaigns,” to see whether they could identify a pattern. What they found was that the most successful brands—those that both lead their category and produced the highest ROI—used what they termed the Unique Selling Proposition or “USP.” 

The concept of “USP” has three guiding principles:
  • The proposition must be clearly stated to the consumer: “Buy this product, and you will get this specific benefit.”
  • The proposition itself must be unique. It must express a specific benefit that competitors do not, will not, or cannot offer.
  • The proposition must be strong enough to pull new customers to the product.
Brand positioning
In the late 60’s and early 70’s, the concept of “brand” began to take on new meaning, including the larger concept of image and values. Al Ries and Jack Trout captured this evolution in their Harvard Business Review article and later authored a book by the same title: POSITIONING: The battle for your mind. Their concept stated that it was not product superiority that mattered, but rather consumers’ perception of a given brand that paved the road to success. This concept was dubbed “brand positioning” and to this day it remains the standard for developing successful brands.

Effective businesses view their brands as tools that allow their messaging to cut through the noise of an overcrowded marketplace.  Consumers use brands as a method for navigating their way through the marketplace. Each brand distinguishes itself, allowing consumers to identify their preferred products and services from those they see as being less desirable. When brand meaning and relevance are clear, the brand will hold a stronger position in consumer’s minds and the more likely they are to choose it.

Branding is managing customer expectations
Branding is not about getting people to choose your offering over the competitions. It is the act of managing consumers’ expectations so as to condition your target audience to see your offering as the only answer to a specific need.

By defining a realistic and manageable promise of what the brand owner will deliver and what consumers can expect of the brand, branding has become the backbone of modern business strategy. “Brand” drives consumer purchase decisions and affects nearly every functional area of a business. With product offerings converging into sameness, companies are viewing “brand” as the only avenue of differentiation.

Branding defines market position (brand strategy) and, through a series of signals, articulates that position as promise (brand positioning). When strategy and positioning work as one, brands obtain sustainable and favorable market positions. This has shifted the task of brand building and management to the primary business strategy.

Brands are built on trust
While the concept of brand is ever-evolving, its primary purpose is to balance the objectives of an organization with people’s needs and expectations. It does this by building a trustworthy relationship with consumers. In other words, what is promised by the brand owner and what is expected by the brand’s audience become one and the same—It’s that simple and that complex.
  • brands are about feelings, not facts.
  • how your customers feel about your brand isn’t a casual question.  It is the crucial question.
Eric D. Schulz is the co-director of strategic marketing and brand management at the Jon M Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University. Prior to joining the University, he spent five years as Vice-President of Marketing for the Utah Jazz (NBA); he previously was VP of Marketing with the XFL Football League, and served as a general manager in minor league baseball. He can be reached at eric.schulz@usu.edu.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Going from $1 million in debt to the top of industry

Made a million dollars by the time she was 25. Lost a million, and owed a million more, by the time she was 28. Ernst and Young “Entrepreneur of the Year.” Bought a car from a 16-year-old for $250 when the bank seized her car.

Jacque Butler, CEO and founder of MedQuest Solutions
I’m talking about Jacque Butler, the remarkable entrepreneur who was the most recent featured speaker of the Huntsman School’s “Lectures in Entrepreneurship” series. Butler, who founded MedQuest Solutions and was its CEO until last month, described her numerous entrepreneurial experiences. At times, things were a little rocky. Those times appear to be in the distant past, as her last few ventures have been home runs.

Butler started out in real estate. She worked with her father after she finished college, and she had great success at first. She said she made a $1 million by the time she was 25. Around this time, however, the economy took a turn for the worse, and Butler’s bank account followed suit.

“I didn’t know what I would lose first: my house or my car,” Butler said.

She decided to become a waitress to pay off her debts. Then she realized she needed a graduate degree to become more marketable. While she was attending school during the day and working during the night, she realized she needed someone to help with her six children. After a frustrating experience trying to find a nanny agency that could deal with her situation, she decided she could do it better: she started her own nanny agency. Within the first year, it became the largest nanny agency in the U.S.

When her father was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, she said it was difficult to watch him go through the downward slide of the disease. That fueled her desire to start her next successful venture, MedQuest Solutions. The company specializes in bio identical hormone replacement therapy and provides physicians and patients with pharmaceutical services, lab work and supplement manufacturing.

Butler said entrepreneurship is in her blood. She said she didn’t think there were any other options when it came to picking a career. And it doesn’t sound like she will be getting out of the game any time soon. During the question and answer session at the end of her lecture, a student asked what she saw herself doing in 10 years.

“I will have started two or three more companies.”

- Connor Child

Friday, February 10, 2012

Developing a brand

Many people frequently misuse the term “brand” by interchanging it with advertising, marketing, naming or a design. These improper applications have caused much confusion as to what branding is and how it works. As such, “brand” has become a bit of a buzzword. But, what does it really mean and how does it work?

First, let's clear up the confusion of brand strategy vs. marketing strategy vs. marketing tactics. Here is a simple definition:

A brand strategy defines the unique benefits your brand offers to the target audience. It spells out clearly and concisely what makes your product or service different, better and special in the competitive marketplace. It clearly defines what it is you want the consumer to think about your product (brand).

A marketing strategy has a defined business goal, i.e. increase sales; generate more newspaper stories in the local press; attract new customers. Each marketing strategy uses the brand strategy as the cornerstone in developing “what it will say” to the customers, local press or prospective customers. They will all be “singing from the same hymnal,” with a consistent brand benefit message.

Marketing tactics are the actions you take to execute the marketing strategy. It could include any number of things…advertising, Facebook postings and other social media, new promotional materials, mailers, flyers, etc.

In practice: A brand is an experience living at the intersection of promise and expectation. Here’s how it works. A company expresses its brand as a promise, both overt and implied. That promise lives in consumers’ hearts and minds as an expectation. When brand promise and consumers’ expectations reflect one another, the brand holds tremendous value for both parties.

Eric D. Schulz
Effective businesses view their brands as tools that allow their messaging to cut through the noise of an overcrowded marketplace. Consumers use brands as a method for navigating their way through the marketplace. Each brand distinguishes itself, allowing consumers to identify their preferred products and services from those they see as being less desirable. When brand meaning and relevance are clear, the brand will hold a stronger position in consumer’s minds and the more likely they are to choose it.

Branding is not about getting people to choose your offering over the competitions. It is the act of managing consumers’ expectations so as to condition your target audience to see your offering as the only answer to a specific need. Brands are about feelings, not facts. How your customers feel about your brand isn't just a casual question. It is the ONLY question.

In order to develop, cultivate and nurture your brand, there are definite actions and qualities on which you must focus.

You can't fake honesty. You must believe in your own brand. If you don't have faith in what you do or sell, you can't expect your customers to believe in you either.

Focus on that benefit(s) and your means of delivering it. Never lose sight of what it is that your business seeks to achieve for your customers.

Keep it simple. Find out what you can do well for your target audience and concentrate on doing it.

Seth Godin says, “In my experience, people get obsessed about tactical detail before they embrace a brand strategy... and as a result, when a tactic fails, they begin to question the brand strategy that they never really articulated in the first place.”

The next time you find yourself spending 8 hours on tactics and five minutes defining your strategy, you'll understand what's going on.

-Eric D. Schulz

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Generous donation from Flying J helps us "go big"

Ken Snyder
As you may have heard, we at the Huntsman School were recently the beneficiaries of a $1.75 million donation from Flying J Management Inc. Crystal Call Maggelet, Flying J’s President and CEO, is a great friend of ours and we are fortunate to have such generous donors.

Thanks to the gift, we will create the Flying J Career Development Center. The center will be an invaluable resource for students to develop relationships with hiring organizations. We haven’t determined where the final location of the center will be, but it will either be in the new building, or in renovated space in the Eccles building.

This gift represents a major step to closing the gap between what we have and what we need to “go big.”

- Ken Snyder

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

When will we be moving into Huntsman Hall?

Ken Snyder
One of the questions I am often asked about our new building, Huntsman Hall, is, of course, when will it be done? We nailed some of those key dates down last week and I thought I would share them with you.

We plan to demolish Lund Hall in late August or early September of 2012. We plan to break ground for the new 117,000-square-foot building in September of 2012. Huntsman Hall will be substantially completed by June of 2014, and we plan to start moving into the building on August 1st of that same year in time for Fall 2014 semester classes.

- Ken Snyder