This year marks the 50th anniversary of National Small Business Week. Although things have certainly changed since President Kennedy signed the first Presidential Proclamation in 1963, one thing that hasn’t changed is America’s entrepreneurial spirit and the important role that small business owners play in our economy and our communities.
Earlier this spring, Master of Business Communication student Christina Milanowski was named Minnesota PRSA’s 2012 Young Professional Award winner. She was recently interviewed by Arik Hanson for his “PR Rock Stars” series and discussed why she decided to get her degree, and, what she hopes to achieve as a result:
Pursuing a masters in business communications (technically an MBC) has been one of the most impactful moves I’ve made in my life. The spark you get from sitting in a classroom and collaborating with your classmates (or finishing your homework just in time) is unmatched in the workplace setting. At St. Thomas, MBA and MBC students often share classes, allowing me to learn alongside and from working professionals much different than me – engineers, accountants, HR benefits managers and medical device sales reps. Read the rest of this entry »
A year before they graduated from the University of St. Thomas, Emily Pritchard ’11 and Martha McCarthy ’11 were guaranteed millionaires – in the eyes of a fellow entrepreneur, at least. As the only undergraduates, and the only women, to make it to the finals of the Fowler Business Concept Challenge in 2009, Pritchard and McCarthy’s concept for SnapSystem Bikes won rave reviews from one of the judges, who was so impressed by the uniqueness of the idea and the professionalism of their presentation, he felt sure he could make them millionaires. Read the rest of this entry »
One of the big components of an application to a business school program is the often-dreaded standardized test. The GMAT, for most applicants here, is by far the most-taken test. We often are asked about how to prepare for these tests and how much time to spend studying. Of course, the answer is different for every applicant, but there are some generalizations that apply. I often suggested planning on devoting about 100 hours to test preparation. The next question becomes: how should you spend those hours? Reading vocabulary cards, taking practice tests, studying algebra textbooks? The Bell Curves Blog recently posted some interesting advice that helps to provide an answer: Read the rest of this entry »
Slowly, but surely, summer will be upon us. June marks the middle of 2013, meaning we all are well on our way to accomplishing our New Year’s resolutions, if we haven’t already done so. 45 percent of Americans make New Year’s resolutions, but only 8 percent are successful in achieving them. Less than half of us remain committed to our resolutions by June each year. So while the majority of us have already given up, it could be the perfect time to start a new resolution, or give an ongoing resolution a check up.
According to the University of Scranton Journal of Clinical Psychology, resolutions are broken into four main categories. Self-improvement leads the pack at 47 percent, weight related is second with 38 percent, a close third are those focusing on money at 34 percent and last are relationship specific resolutions with 31 percent.
To reengage your focus and determination, or to cross something off your bucket list, these three tips can help.
Hold yourself accountable.
Enlist a partner to keep you focused, but also to share in the commitment. Tell others about your desired results so they can follow up with your successes or detractions.
Strategize the solution.
Creating an action plan and timeline breaks up the entire process. Rather than staring at a large and overwhelming credit card bill, break the payment process down into monthly payments and reduced weekly spending goals.
Celebrate successes, acknowledge failures.
Whether successess are large or small, each should be rewarded. Creating a reward system can be as simple as allowing yourself to download one new MP3 each week for your workout playlist. Failures can be learned from as well, as aid in developing a more successful strategy than what was originally planned.
For tips on reinvigorating derailed resolutions or creating new ones read the articles below.
Money Resolutions
6 New Year’s Resolutions for Saving Money
Stick to Your Money Resolutions
Time: Top Money Resolutions (Tips)
Health Resolutions
9 Healthy New Year’s Resolutions
5 Healthy Resolutions for Women
Career Resolutions
5 Solid Tips to Sticking to Your Career Resolutions
10 Keys for Taking Control of Your Career
We’d love to hear from you, what has led to your successful resolutions? What resolutions did you accomplish? Have you planned any new resolutions for summer?
As a school, we have long distinguished ourselves as a leader in business education, and we are in the process of distinguishing ourselves as a leader in our engagement and support of an increasingly diverse professional community, here in the Twin Cities metropolitan area and throughout the Midwest. Therefore it is very timely that we’d see student organizations springing up on our campus in response to the intersection of these two forces. Our student news site, Tommie Media, recently reported that a group of St. Thomas students are planning a business club for minorities and expect to officially launch it this fall:
Sophomore Sarah Ubani came up with the idea of establishing the business club, which specifically caters to minority students. Read the rest of this entry »
Summer is here at last, it seems, and for many Minnesotans that means it is festival season. Lately I’ve heard Minnesota called the Land of 10,000 festivals, and it appears there’s something for everyone: art, beer, running, renaissance, Grand Old Day, the Aquatennial, the Irish Fair and, of course, the State Fair. Up north, Duluth has more than two dozen festivals. UST alumni have contributed a few to the mega mix of Minnesota festivals, like the Midwest Tomato Fest, now set for its third year on July 13.
How many festivals are there, actually, and what impact do all these events have on our state economy? MinnPost and Twin Cities Business recently sought to answer these questions and their article is worth a read. Here are a few snippets: Read the rest of this entry »
It seems that everyone is promoting being entrepreneurial these days. At SXSW, Bill Gates called for more entrepreneurs to enter the education space. Senators Moran and Warner say Washington, D.C., needs more entrepreneurs. Consulting firms Ernst & Young and PwC have employees pitch a new idea, and the winners get funded. Even well-known start-ups such as Google and Dell are taking a page from universities, and creating Entrepreneur-in-Residence programs to encourage more entrepreneurial knowledge and awareness in their companies.
So what is it that makes some people more entrepreneurial? The popular answers are they are risk takers, charismatic leaders who don’t fear failure and are highly motivated to succeed. I can’t argue with any of those; we can all name successful entrepreneurs who embody those characteristics. But can I create or increase those qualities in myself, or in the people around me? Unfortunately, I don’t think I can teach people to be bigger risk takers, to not fear failure or to be more charismatic. Read the rest of this entry »
Instead of focusing on making his voice heard, Max Shapiro already aspires to something loftier: to be the voice for those that go unheard. Shapiro is in his second year of St. Thomas’ dual degree JD/MBA program, a joint venture between the School of Law and Opus College of Business that will ultimately supply him with degrees in both law and business.
While working toward his bachelor’s degree in leadership and management at St. Thomas, Shapiro felt torn between law school and business school. An information session he attended his junior year for the School of Law’s newly-launched Tommie Law Early Admission Program, an opportunity that exempts students from taking the LSAT and compresses a would-be five years of study into four, ended up winning him over. He later decided to add the MBA to make room for more opportunity. Shapiro has already completed the exclusively-law first year of the program and is working through the exclusively-business second year; years three and four are hybrids of both disciplines, meaning Shapiro will be switching between the two schools next year.
Honing in on Crucial Intellectual Property Issues Around the World
As people and businesses interact on the internet, knowing foreign laws and the philosophical and historical underpinnings for those laws becomes increasingly important. Opus College of Business Ethics and Business Law professor Susan Marsnik travels the world as one of the leading experts on comparative intellectual property law writing in the United States.
Read more in Exemplars, a publication of the Grants and Research Office.
Author: Susan Marsnik, associate professor of Ethics and Business Law
Published on: Tuesday, June 11th, 2013
Posted in Commentary, Faculty | No Comments »