School's namesake featured in SL Trib today

Today, the Salt Lake Tribune published an interview with our school’s namesake, Jon Huntsman Sr., as he was getting ready to dedicate a $100 million expansion at the Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City. Throughout the interview, Huntsman speaks “candidly about the state of the nation’s economy, the effect the downturn is having on charitable giving and the role he sees private enterprise playing in the battle to help relieve human suffering around the world.”

Some highlights:

• “…When we talk about the (downturn in the) economy, I have to ask myself what does that mean? It means I will have to raise more money. I have to give more money and find more avenues to tap into to keep this facility and others going and productive. “

• “We’ve been building our business for 41 years and now produce 12,000 products. We help make plastics that go into airliners. They replace metal parts so the planes are more fuel efficient and safer. We are one of the world’s largest producers of soaps and detergents to make the world cleaner and people happier and more beautiful.”

• “I’m totally lost as to why people don’t either give their money away like we are trying to do to help those who are suffering, or investing it in something that will create jobs.”

• “My wife and I started contributing to charitable causes when we were first married and only making $300 a month. As we were able to make more money we were able to continue to give to charity, while at the same time keeping our businesses sufficiently supplied with capital for growth and expansion. We’ve been able to give over $1 billion away, and our business is stronger than ever.”

To read the full interview, click here.

Out of the caves

An idea was unearthed last week that may mean that soon our students will never have to go to class in “the caves” ever again.

Ken Snyder

There are two large classrooms on the third floor of the George S. Eccles Business Building that are so big, so deep that students say they can barely hear in the back of the room. Teachers and students alike have taken to calling room 317 and 319 “the caves.” These are flat classrooms furnished with old-fashioned, fixed-arm, hard desks. Teachers don’t like to teach there and students would prefer to be taught anywhere else. Up to 85 students fit in these classrooms.

When we have larger classrooms, we usually use tiered classrooms to facilitate discussion. We can’t convert these classrooms into tiered classrooms because the ceilings are too low. If we were to try to break these classrooms up into smaller classrooms, we’d end up with a lot of wasted space – a luxury we can’t afford.

As we’ve been discussing what we should and shouldn’t put into the new building, we came up with an idea that we had not thought of before. What if we converted these two classrooms into office space? If we make that space into office and meeting space for our centers, for example, we would have that much more room in the new building available for great, new classrooms. Swapping out bad classrooms and replacing them with great, new classrooms is the kind of trade we want to make.

Another advantage of this set-up will be that students who come through the George S. Eccles Business Building would then walk by this area on their way to their nice new classrooms in Huntsman Hall. This will help give more exposure to the work the centers are doing. After all, they won’t do much good if our students don’t know they are there.

This idea will make it so none of our students will ever again be lost in the back of “the caves” straining to hear what the teacher is saying. We think it’s a great idea.

- Ken Snyder

Should Nintendo skills go on a résumé?

On Halloween, I spend the evening applying for jobs and playing a little 8-bit Nintendo.

I spend 4 hours filling out 5 job applications and 1.25 hours saving the princess. Guess which activity I felt better about when I went to bed?

Paul Lewis Siddoway

Nobody will argue that it's easy to find a job. Especially in this market. Fortunately, there are plenty of tools and plenty of advice on the subject.

One blog I found, "Thoughts on Teaching," comes from the stand point of a professor from the University of Florida.

Julie Dodd, a professor in UF's communications department saw an article in the New York Times about new graduates waiting for their careers to begin, and she suggested a few things to do.

Obviously, while I'm looking for a foot in the door to the big-boy job world I'll keep the job I have, but Dodd also suggested freelancing. One guy I work with got paid $50 for one hour of consultation. Brilliant.

There are other ways to make good use of that 40-hours a week I may not be using, too. And I'm not just talking about traversing the underworld and slaying monsters. I found Dodd's blog because I decided to start my own blog. It may not be about accounting or finance or marketing, but it is about music, because that's one of my passions. And maybe someone else who's into music will read it. And maybe, just maybe, they'll want to talk to me about something else, like a job. It's worth a shot, right? If nothing else, I'm developing another marketable job skill.

I've already talked about networking, but Dodd recommends always carrying business cards, just in case. Even if they aren't that professional, as long as they have a way to contact you, that's enough. Ideally, I'd like to give everyone I meet a copy of my resume, so they can give it to someone else they know and I will be handed a job on a silver platter.

And speaking of resumes, do you think beating a golden action-adventure game from the 80s is resume-worthy? What demonstrates your work ethic better than the infinite amount of hours you’ve spent on problem-solving a single, dedicated task with no form of reward other than the satisfaction of completion?

At least, that's how I justify it to my wife.

- Paul Lewis Siddoway

The emergence of location-based services

Connor Child

America’s Finest News Source (aka “The Onion”) may have mocked glowing media reports about Foursquare’s entrance into the social media world, but it looks like the tone of those media reports was justified.

This past summer, the number of Foursquare users reached 10 million, a 100 percent increase from December. Shortly after, the privately held company raised $50 in funding at a $600 million value.

Foursquare has established itself as a formidable player in the social media realm, worthy of being mentioned alongside Facebook and Twitter. But, as a June USA Today article reports, success of that magnitude comes with challenges. 

Foursquare is a location-based service (LBS) that lets users win virtual prizes by using their smartphones to “check in” to the places they visit. Many people are weary about having their movements tracked and broadcasted online, and privacy concerns remain a major hindrance to further growth. In response to these concerns, Foursquare lets users decide for themselves whether or not they want to share their locations with a broader audience on Facebook and Twitter. If they want, users can have their locations shared with a small group of trusted friends.

This article brought up some interesting points about Foursquare’s utility. For example, a New York restaurant near Foursquare’s office has used the service to “break down its customer base by gender, age group and check-in time. Knowing when customers visit lets the restaurant plan operations when things are busy and offer specials when business is slow.” 

Facebook, having already been on the winning side of creative destruction once before (see: Myspace), couldn’t just sit around and watch Foursquare get all the accolades. Consequently, it launched “Facebook Places” in August of 2010. 

After a year of less-than-impressive results, reports surfaced that Facebook was killing off its “Places” feature. But, as Steve McClellan reported, Facebook wasn’t conceding the LBS marketing battle to Foursquare: “Agencies say that what Facebook is actually doing…may scale their location-based marketing capability in a way that could motivate a majority of their 500 million global members to add location data when using the site.”

Basically, Facebook just made it possible for users to tag status updates with their locations. They can do this on laptops, phones or any other portable device. Michael Nicholas, chief strategy officer at Aegis Group’s Isobar, described the move as an “embedded tag strategy that's about getting more people to put more location data into Facebook.”

The value of putting “more location data into Facebook” is that it makes the product more attractive to marketers. Marketers are constantly trying to dig up information on potential customers, and finding out what locations they visit and at what time of day gives them valuable consumer insight.

A rapidly increasing number of people are participating in location-based services, making it easier than ever before for businesses to learn about consumers’ daily behavior. It is obvious that consumers value the services provided by Foursquare and the like, but what will ultimately determine LBS’s success is how useful they are to businesses. Foursquare works with hundreds of thousands of merchants to develop incentives for people to check in at their locations, and if these merchants don’t see results, they will find other methods to bring in customers.


- Connor Child

NBA lockout part 2: The best and worst case scenarios for the Utah Jazz

Following last week's blog on the NBA Lockout, several folks emailed me asking what is the best-case and worst-case scenario as far as the Utah Jazz are concerned with the new collective bargaining agreement in terms of luxury tax, salary cap, etc.

The best case for the Jazz will be three-fold:

Eric D. Schulz

1) A hard salary cap, which will force the "have's" (the big market teams like the Lakers, Knicks, Bulls, Heat, Mavericks) to compete on a level playing field with the have-nots. The big-market teams have such a financial advantage that they ignore the salary cap/luxury tax and consider them a cost of doing business. For example, the Lakers last season paid total salaries of $110.4 million, including $20 million in luxury taxes. If you look at the teams with the highest payrolls, they consistently are the teams in the Conference Finals/NBA Finals.

The National Hockey League (NHL) has a hard salary cap, and it appears to have restored competitive balance. Since their lockout season in 2005-06, of the twelve Stanley Cup Finalists, 10 different teams have appeared. In the same period in the NBA, the Western Conference champions have been only San Antonio (05 and 07), Dallas (06 and 11), and the Lakers (08, 09, and 10). In the East: Miami (06 and 11), Boston (08 and 10), Orlando (09), Cleveland (07), and Detroit (05).

2) Increased Revenue Sharing: The NBA currently has two revenue sharing mechanisms. First, all the monies collected from luxury taxes are distributed equally among those teams that do not go over the luxury tax limit. There is also a pool of money that small-market teams can earn based on a complicated formula that uses "performance & effort" criteria based on the teams sales and marketing efforts. If the team is deemed to have done all they can do in these areas based on their market size, they receive a portion of the pool -- but its a relatively small amount, one to two million dollars per team on average. And only a handful of small teams get these dollars every year.

The small market teams like the Jazz want to move to an NFL revenue sharing model, where teams get to keep their "premium" seating revenues (luxury boxes, Hollywood "Courtside" seats) and local sponsorship dollars, but the rest of the ticket revenues are pooled together as a league and shared equally. Small market teams also want local TV/radio rights monies included in the shared pool as well, since there is such a wide disparity among the values of those in cities like Los Angeles vs. Salt Lake City.

3) Franchise Player Designations: The NBA is on a slippery slope, with players now colluding to form their own All-Star teams. Boston started the trend with the trade for Kevin Garnett, followed by the Lakers acquisition of Pau Gasol. 2010 was the tipping point, when LeBron James, Chris Bosh and DeWayne Wade decided to join forces in Miami, and Carmelo Anthony forced a trade to the Knicks to join Amare Stoudamire, and together they are lobbying hard to get Chris Paul to the Knicks.

The NFL has Franchise Players, and it has worked well in keeping "stars" put. Had Cleveland been able to designate LeBron as their franchise player, Denver designated Anthony, and Utah designated Deron Williams, most of what has happened this past season in terms of "star" movement would not have. But under the current system, the good ol' days of Karl and John playing for a Utah team their entire career is never going to happen again. The Jazz will be able to do what they did with Deron - re-sign him to his first max contract, then be forced to trade him or watch him walk in year 6 or 7 (just when he is reaching All-Star status). Small market teams will constantly be in rebuilding mode, unable to compete.

So what is the worst-case scenario for the Jazz?

No salary cap. In other words, keeping some form or variation of the luxury tax, and not reducing the basketball related income down to at least 50 percent. The big market teams have such a huge advantage financially, it's akin to Zions Bank trying to compete with Citibank. As long as the big market teams can "buy" their advantage and have owners like Jerry Buss, Mark Cuban, and other rich people, the Utah's of the world will never be able to compete. Sure, they may have a one-year blip like the Jazz run to the Western Conference Finals in 2007, but nothing sustainable. Money always wins in the NBA.

The other thing that needs to get fixed are the outlandish salaries paid to mid-level players…guys who fill up the roster, but aren't putting butts in seats. Guys like Al Jefferson ($14 million), Mehmut Okur ($12 million), Andrei Kirilenko ($17 million), and Paul Millsap ($8 million). Sure, these guys are good, but people don't say "Gee, lets go drop a hundred bucks to see Andrei Kirilenko tonight"; they DO say that, however, for guys like Kobe, Kevin Durant, LeBron, and Dirk.

To fix it right, a hard salary cap, where the total team salary can't exceed X no matter what, would by default drag down these mid-range guys salaries. Teams would end up doing what Miami did last year - pay the three "stars" good money, and everybody else makes minimum wage. That's how it should work – and THAT would restore competitive balance to a league of have's and have nots.

- Eric D. Schulz

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.

Study abroad: the highlight of my college experience

This past week, a group of Huntsman Scholars got home from a 3 ½ week long trip to Europe. I literally thought about them every day and reflected on my own experience on that trip two years ago.

Bungee jumping in the Swiss Alps wasn't the only great
thing I did on my study abroad.

My study abroad experience was the highlight of my college career. I spent a majority of the trip trying to convince myself that I was actually experiencing everything that was happening. I did a lot of fun things (see the picture at the right), but I also learned about things in a way that I never had before. It’s one thing to talk about international economic policies; it’s quite another to talk to a European Union official in Brussels, Belgium.

There will be a Go Global information session on Tuesday from 5-6 p.m. The first 300 people to show up will win Best Buy gift cards ranging from $5 to $50. If you haven’t had the chance to “go global” with the Huntsman School, I highly recommend that you attend this session. I am a firsthand witness to the value of these study abroad trips. We have a world-class global enrichment program, and my education has been greatly enhanced by their efforts. In the words of Huntsman student Whitney Dastrup, the world is too interesting to stay in one place.  

Space, the final frontier

Everyone has submitted their projections for the kind of space they’d like to see in our new Huntsman Hall. They calculated and recalculated, thinking of what life could be like in 2025. Each group making recommendations figured out such things as:

• how many classrooms they need,

Ken Snyder

• what kind of classrooms (tiered or flat) will work best,

• how much office space is necessary,

• how many meeting and break-out rooms would be optimal,

• how much open space for students should be part of the plan,

• and where we might plug in a place to get some nourishment (eats).

We took all those estimates and gave them to our architects to see just what kind facility we were cooking up. We have funding for a building that will be about 90,000 square feet. When our architects estimated how many square feet it would take to meet everyone’s forecasted needs, it came to about 123,000 square feet. Our vision exceeds our resources.

Am I surprised? Nope. This is exactly what we predicted. Most of the schools I visited experienced the same thing. Part of doing great things with this new building will be figuring out where to say no and where to say yes. It’s time to prioritize.

The engagement and contributions of our advisory teams have been impressive. We will be turning to them to help us separate our needs from our wants. Because I have seen their unified desire to focus on how to best serve our students, I am confident that our next step will not be about giving up things but refining our ideas so that even better ones can come forward. Stephen R. Covey, the Jon M. Huntsman Presidential Chair in Leadership, calls this synergy, or, as he describes it, when one plus one can equal three. When it comes to this building, we need it all to equal 90,000 square feet.

It’s all good. We’ve got the right people in place so that, in our case, I am confident space will not be the final frontier … only the beginning.

- Ken Snyder