Huntsman Marketing Case Team Wins Fan Favorite!

by Dr. Sterling Bone

I am pleased to report that our Huntsman marketing undergraduate case team performed very well at the Wake Forest Marketing Analytics Summit Competition. For the first time we were selected as one of six semifinalists with teams from Wharton, Yale, Maryland, Universidad Panamericana (Mexico), and Wake Forest. Our Huntsman team was voted the “Fan Favorite” and according to the conference organizers our Huntsman team was their personal favorite as well. While we did not place in the top three, I was able to see our students present their case and they did an outstanding job in representing Huntsman. From the minute we arrived to Winston-Salem, the students were full of positive energy that was contagious! The event organizers and many of the other teams commented to me how professional, mature and poised our students were during the entire competition. The Wake Forest faculty and MBA students that organized the competition told me on a number of occasions how impressed they were with our Huntsman team, and were hopeful that we would want to return for the competition in years to come.

Team members included Trevor Gonzales, Kyle Spackman, Sheii Lindley, Emily Munk, Chris Vaughan, and Dan Meszaros.

Professor Elected to National HR Committee

Professor Tim Gardner was recently elected to the Academy of Management Human Resource Division Executive Committee, a group that provides a disciplinary headquarters for members with specific scholarly interests around HR.

“Students that graduate from business schools with a specialization in human resources have excellent placement rates and starting salaries; they also make great alumni as they have a major impact on which schools their employers choose to hire from,” Professor Gardner said. “This election will allow me to influence the direction and quality of basic scholarship on the role human capital plays in organizational success and ensure that the human resource curriculum in AACSB accredited business schools remains relevant and useful to students and the companies that hire them.”

Professor Tim Gardner

Professor Gardner will serve with 12 other executive committee members – the chair, treasurer and program chairs – to develop and administer conferences, awards, teaching seminars, research seminars, etc.

The Huntsman MHR Program is seeing a steady increase in enrollment and visibility. Job placement rates are approximately 95 percent for graduates, and starting salaries are above average compared to many other graduate degrees. With Professor Gardner’s membership in this committee, more attention will be drawn to the MHR program outside of Utah among the academic community.

“Faculty play a big role in helping students decide where to pursue graduate study,” Professor Gardner said. “By networking with top HR Scholars from around the US and the world, these people will be more willing to refer their students to our program.”

The Academy of Management is a global collection of over 18,000 management scholars (faculty and doctoral students).

1,101 Graduates

2014 Huntsman School valedictorian, Brooke Siler

By Klydi Heywood

The Huntsman School of Business graduated 817 students at a commencement ceremony on May 5, with 141 of those degrees granted through the Huntsman undergraduate program in China, and 284 students earning graduate degrees this year.

The commencement ceremony began with this year’s valedictorian, Brooke Siler, who graduated with bachelor’s degrees in Economics and Biochemistry with a 4.0 GPA. She served as the president of the Society for the Advancement of Ethical Leadership as well as the Chemistry Club, was a Huntsman Scholar, participated in our Koch Scholar Program, went to Asia through the Go Global study abroad program, and also received the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship while conducting research in the biochemistry department. This summer she will begin work with the global investment research group at Goldman Sachs.

Speaking from experience, Brooke advised students to use our diverse backgrounds to bring a fresh experience to any field they choose.

“Today I ask you to be aware of the inner walls that you put around your mind,” Brooke said. “I also ask you to search your soul, find your passion, and chase it, regardless of whether or not that passion has anything to do with your major, your past, or your current interests.”

After Brooke, the graduates and audience had the opportunity to hear from this year’s commencement speaker, Dr. Tayseer Al-Smadi, who earlier in the morning received an honorary doctorate degree from USU. Dr. Tayseer is currently a senator of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, where he serves as chair of the Senate Public Services Committee. Additionally, in February 2014, he was elected chairman of the Jordan Press and Publishing Corporation. Dr. Tayseer received a Ph.D. inEconomics from the Huntsman School in 1998.

2014 Huntsman Commencement speaker, Dr. Tayseer Al-Smadi

“My first thought which I want to share with you today is to live your humanity in the full sense with yourself, at home, at work, in the community at large, and wherever you go,” Dr. Tayseer said. “Don't take pride in your differences of race, or social rank, or gender, or nationality; remember that ‘strength lies in differences, not in similarities’, as the late Stephen Covey rightly said.”

“Success, in a nutshell, is a matter of ‘wining yourself,’” Dr. Tayseer said. “Make sure to keep ‘winning yourself’ all the time; for me, wining myself includes caring for others.”

As Dean Douglas D. Anderson concluded the ceremony he encouraged students to “remember that your passion for excellence must always be in balance with your compassion for your fellow human beings.”

“While economic logic connects input to output, and risk to reward, the moral logic is often inverse - it is better to give than to receive,” Dean Anderson continued. “To win yourself, as Dr. Tayseer has suggested, lose yourself in something greater than yourself.”

Undergraduate Student Presents Research at International Marketing Conference

By Amy Nelson

As an undergraduate student studying at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business, I believe there are opportunities everywhere you look. Recently, I had the extraordinary opportunity to present the research I’ve been working on at a marketing research conference in New York City. It was one of the most incredible experiences I’ve had and one that I will take with me as I move on to the professional world.

Last May, I visited with Professor Sterling Bone about my interest in doing research. Over the past year, I have been working with Professors Bone and Deanne Brocato on how the marketing of princesses affect self-identity formation and the personal and collective well-being of mothers and their daughters. Because this is a topic I am particularly passionate about (especially as it relates to the awareness and prevention of eating disorders), I jumped at the chance to code and analyze the qualitative interview data that Professors Bone and Brocato had collected.

Huntsman student Amy Nelson presents marketing research

Throughout the school year, we furiously worked to understand and analyze the mounds of data at a deep and underlying level. Countless hours were put into coding the data, and numerous meetings were scheduled to discuss our findings.

When the time came, we submitted the research and were accepted to present our work at the 2014 Positive Marketing Conference at Fordham University in New York City. This international conference is an academic and professional event where professors, PhD students and marketing professionals come together to discuss how “positive” marketing can be a catalyst for creating uplifting change in the world. Topics were presented in a wide range of categories, but all were centered on the implications of positive marketing. As the only undergraduate student at the conference, I was given full reign to present our research to an extremely intelligent and highly reputable group of people.

Instead of feeling intimidation, I felt a tremendous amount of community-like support. Each academic and professional attendee made me feel at ease, which was an extremely comforting feeling – especially given the circumstances. The presentation went just as I hoped, and afterward I received an exceptional amount of positive feedback from several of the conference attendees. It was such a relief! I also had the chance to network with some of the attendees and hear about their experiences – it was fun to be able to converse with and learn from them. This conference really opened my eyes to the academic world.

While the end goal is to publish our findings in a top-tier academic marketing journal, this conference was an outstanding opportunity to present our research to an academic and professional community and gain feedback in order to move forward with this research. As an undergraduate student, I have been extremely lucky to have Professor Bone and Professor Brocato as mentors throughout this process. It truly has been an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me, and I’ve learned a great deal from this experience. Research opportunities at USU are vast and widespread. I encourage everyone, at some point in your college career, to get involved with research – it could end up being an experience you won’t soon forget.

Third Huntsman Student in Two Years Wins Accounting Industry’s Highest Honor

By Klydi Heywood

When Huntsman alumni Jill Aoki and Anthony Lemon received the 2012 Elijah Watt Sells Award, many marveled at the odds, but one Huntsman student took it as a challenge.

The American Institute of CPAs recently announced that Tyson Irwin, Accounting BS ’12, MA ’13, has earned the 2013 Elijah Watt Sells Award, the third Aggie to do so in the past two years. Just 55 people out of 94,000 candidates taking the exam this year earned the award, which is given to those who scored a cumulative average above 95.5 on all four tests required to become a certified public accountant.

2013 Elijah Watt Sells Award Recipient Tyson Irwin

“Tyson was always an outstanding student and was chosen as one of our Quigley Ambassadors because he exemplified the Huntsman values so well,” said Dr. Larry Walther, department head of the USU School of Accountancy. “We are thrilled for his accomplishment at this level.”

Graduates from Texas A&M, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Brigham Young University, University of Michigan, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and Purdue University were among those who earned the prestigious award.

Irwin credits his success on the exam to the School of Accountancy's roster of professors.

“The professors have a good mix of business and educational backgrounds that they bring to the classroom,” Irwin said. “Additionally, the professors would often highlight how a specific topic relates to the CPA exam, or how what we were learning could be used in our future careers.”

Scott Nixon, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers where Irwin now works, first met him at a recruiting event.

“I immediately recognized he was on the ball, displayed a mature executive presence and had a comprehensive understanding of our profession and how he could contribute to the success of our firm,” Nixon said.

The odds of three students in two years winning the award is almost unheard of.

“It is no ‘fluke’ to have these winners of the Sells Award come out of the USU School of Accountancy for the past two years,” Nixon said. “Instead, it is indicative of a trend that clearly demonstrates the incredible education the students receive. Combined with the solid work ethic that is integral to so many of the USU students. We hope that many more will follow the example of these past three winners.”

Career Fairs: Tips from the Experts and Recruiters

By Erin Mann, Alumni Engagement Coordinator

Why should students attend a career fair?

· There are so many jobs out there. If you come here to see what is available and whose looking, it will give a great jump-start to your career. –Zions Bancorporation

· It is really beneficial for students to get it firsthand from someone who has actually in the business.  –JCPenney

· It puts students out there and provides them with opportunities. Companies are widespread and a lot of people don’t know what’s out there. A career fair gives people a wider perspective of what they can do with their degree. – Shopko

What should students do to prepare for a career fair?

· Make sure that your resume is complete - full of all the leadership experiences and work experiences that you’ve done. Any extra curricular activities are a real help in the prospect of looking for future work. - Shopko

· Dress nice and research the companies that will be there so you know a little bit about them. –JCPenney

· Be passionate about something. You have a major, you’re going to class, you have a GPA, that’s great – but everybody else has those things too. What you love to do and who you are will set you apart more than a GPA or major or any other thing that you could give to us on paper. -Vivint

· What you just said – prepare – is the most important thing. Know what it is you’re looking for. With our bank, we have numerous positions so it’s hard to pinpoint one specific job if you don’t know where you’re going. Be prepared and know what you’re looking for then ask specific questions. –Zions Bancorporation

What mistakes do you see students making at career fairs? 

· They’re tentative. I would like to see someone walk up to me and aggressively shake my hand and say, “I’m here for you." –JCPenney

· They all do the same thing. They all tell me their major and GPA and that they don’t know what they want. A lot of them say they want an internship to help them figure out what they want. You should have what you want and find an internship that fits that. -Vivint

· When they come up to us and say, “What do you have for me?” The follow up question to that is “What are you interested in?” –Zions Bancorporation

What can students do to stand out?

· When they do know what they’re looking for; when they’re specific saying, “I’m going to be graduating at this time. This is what I’m looking to get into. What do you have available right now and what can I do to prepare?” –Zions Bancorporation

Promising Company, Launched By Huntsman Students, Will Make Social Media More Effective

Aaron Light, (left), John Johnson, II, Lauren Johnson and Shai McDonald

By Steve Eaton

Those who know they must compete in the social media game, but have limited time and resources to invest in such critical marketing, may take an interest in a solution that will soon be offered by a start-up company founded by Huntsman students.

The company is called RedbirdMetrics and the social media tool it offers, RedbirdQ, impressed a panel of outside judges so much that they gave it first place in a Partners In Business Student Showcase competition recently.

Branson Matheson, a systems architect for NASA, was a keynote speaker and a judge for the contest. He said he was impressed with the student projects that were featured at the event, and believes RedbirdQ could prove very valuable to politicians, celebrities and others needing to promote a cause or a brand.

“Their project was the most polished and it looked like it was almost ready for implementation,” he said. “They didn’t have just a model or even a demo. They had a fully-working version of their solution to show. They have enough developed that if they can’t get venture capital for it, I would be really surprised. I can see a lot of ways it could be applied immediately.”

The RedbirdQ software, still in alpha testing, analyzes the online activity of followers and fans so businesses know when a post will reach the most people, according to Lauren Johnson, a cofounder of the company. The post can be sent out immediately or queued onto a calendar to go out at a specific time in the future.

Normally, sharing a picture or news story is a multi-step process. RedbirdQ allows users to easily grab photos and quotes with bit.ly integration, said Shai McDonald, a cofounder of the company. The software will be offered as a free browser plug in. The company will make money by charging people to analyze the impact of their efforts with the firm’s online software, he said.

Lauren and Shai, who are married, are both juniors majoring in management information systems. John Johnson, II, a sophomore majoring in management information systems, and Aaron Light, a junior majoring in computer science, are also USU students who are cofounders of the company.

The contest, which was part of the Partners In Business Information Technology Conference, is in its third year and allowed students to showcase any IT project they are working on, according to Brandon Layne, the student coordinator for the conference.

Brandon said Partners In Business participants fill out evaluation forms to give feedback on what they liked best about the conference and the student showcase event is always one of the highest-rated parts of the event.

“I would compare it to a higher-caliber IT science fair,” he said. “Students who enter can show any type of project, whether it is something that they have put together on their own, or something that they have done for school. The idea of the showcase is to get real-time exposure and more importantly, one-on one-time with professionals already working in the IT field.”

Vishal Patel and Divya Reddy took second place in the competition and Chad Williams took third.

First-Ever Marketing Week

By Allie Jeppson

Students and business professionals came together March 3 -7 to participate in the first-ever Marketing Week at Utah State University’s Jon M. Huntsman School of Business.

The week-long event and accompanied activities were focused on marketing aspects such as market research, how to market one’s self, marketing strategy, branding and graphic design. Activities also helped students understand the different avenues of marketing and how they can help one become successful in any chosen field.

“I was amazed with the support and interest that we had for the first-ever Huntsman Marketing Week,” said Sterling Bone, Huntsman Marketing Association advisor and associate professor of Management. “The HMA leaders were dedicated and committed to making this a valuable event for their peers.”

Students had the opportunity to participate in events like the ZAGG Case Competition, a Qualtrics market research workshop and a new venture marketing brainstorm session that exposed students to real-life situations marketing professionals face.

“Working very closely with our corporate partners, Marketing Week brought both rigorous competition and relevant training to Huntsman students,” Dr. Bone said.

During the week-long ZAGG Case Competition, teams of 3-5 students were given a marketing problem facing the company on Monday and asked to solve it by the end of the week. Then on Friday, each team presented their ideas to ZAGG executives who afterwards chose a winning team. A team of three marketing students James Hutchison, Trevor Gonzalez and Tanner Boden, took first and not only won iPads, but the possibility for their ideas to be implemented in the company’s marketing strategy.

Kent Wuthrich, (EVP Marketing at Zagg,) Angie Kinsley (Marketing Manager at Zagg), Trevor Gonzalez, James Hutchison

“I learned the importance of conducting rigorous research and only presenting materials that are relevant,” first place winner James Hutchison said. “I really appreciate the efforts of the Huntsman School of Business to bring world-class companies, like ZAGG, here and allowing the students to better understand what it takes to run a successful business.”

Hutchinson’s teammate Trevor Gonzalez agreed.

“While I was networking with executives during Marketing Week, they mentioned that they are always dealing with short deadlines, which we had to do,” he said. “Many internships that I am applying for ask if I can communicate well and present to an executive team. With participating in and winning this competition, I definitely feel that I can do those things.”

Students also worked closely with Blue Square Apartments and The Bull’s Head Pizzeria during a new venture marketing brainstorm session. During this activity, students came up with events, promotions and campaigns to help the Cache Valley startups increase community awareness and expand their customer base.

Ideas such as a new customer loyalty program, an Amazing Race-type event, a running with the bulls bike mob and a western-themed event featuring a mechanical bull were presented by students.

Other activities included a t-shirt design competition, a resume-building workshop and a raffle drawing.

According to Tom Goldhardt, HMA president and senior marketing student, the purpose of Marketing Week was show all USU students the value that marketing can play in all aspects of business.

“We wanted to introduce the whole university to marketing,” he said. “We feel like it is beneficial to every major and that everyone should know the basics.”

Marketing Week also proved to be an opportunity for students to explore career options and network with potential employers. As such, it was a reflection of the immense growth that the Huntsman Marketing Department has seen in the past few years, said Dr. Bone.

“Marketing is on the move,” he said. “We have revamped the marketing curriculum and are placing students as interns and full-time employees in amazing companies. Marketing Week brought awareness and exposure to what we are doing in the Huntsman Marketing Association to help students achieve their career goals.”