Archive for the ‘Student Life’ Category
Monday, May 6th, 2013
![robert-barnett[1]](http://blogs.stthomas.edu/opusmagnum/files/2013/05/robert-barnett1.jpg)
How does one successfully navigate the process of moving from an individual contributor or team member to a first-time manager and leader? Which leadership characteristics and competencies promote positive and authentic leadership and which practices or attitudes can detract from an individual’s leadership potential? Moreover, how does one learn or develop leadership capabilities?
Last month, I had the pleasure of attending the first National Association of Asian MBAs (NAAMBA) event hosted on the University of St. Thomas Minneapolis campus in the Opus College of Business Schulze Auditorium. The event focused on topic that resonated with all attendees, is consistently on the minds of business professionals, and is interwoven throughout the UST MBA program (and many other MBA programs’) curriculum: leadership.
To spark the discussion, NAAMBA-Twin Cities invited Robert C. Barnett, adjunct faculty member in UST’s Organizational Learning and Development department and principal and senior fellow in management consulting at Robert Barnett Consulting, LLC and MDA Leadership Consulting, to share his extensive research and findings about leadership. (more…)
Tags: career management, Career Transition Strategies, Management, Robert C. Barnett
Posted in EveningMBA, Events, Executive MBA, Faculty, FTMBA, Health Care MBA, leadership, Student Life | Comments Off
Wednesday, March 6th, 2013
My daughter is not a fan of “snow days”. She was so happy that Minneapolis did not cancel classes today due to the weather. She eagerly pulled on her snow pants, jacket, hat, mittens and boots and off we went to school 15 minutes earlier than normal. Our regular commute takes about 25 minutes and I drive her to school every day. We arrived safely, with plenty of time to spare. She happily skipped through the snow into the building and couldn’t wait for “morning games” when she could go outside and play. But first, she pulled out her morning worksheet, grabbed a nicely sharpened pencil and got to work on her math worksheet. She knew the order of the day – worksheets, morning meeting, morning games, etc. She knew that today they also had Music and she loves that class. They are practicing for a performance coming up next week. She has been studying her songs for over a month and pretty much has the words, and the hand motions, memorized. (more…)
Tags: kenny, motivation, school, snow
Posted in Commentary, Student Life | Comments Off
Friday, February 15th, 2013
A team of MBA students from the Opus College of Business bested competing teams from the U of M Carlson School and U of Iowa Tippie School in the 2013 ACG Cup case study competition last week. The team that took first place and an award of $4,000 included first-year MBA students Ryan Nelson, Jeff Hawkes, Adam Lawrence and Anthony Anderson (pictured at right with Dean Puto).
The ACG Cup is a designed to give students from leading MBA programs across the country real world experience and invaluable insights into mergers and acquisitions, investment banking, financial advisory and private equity. Each case study provides students with a unique opportunity to present valuation, capital markets and M&A strategic advice to a panel of seasoned M&A professionals from within the ACG community. The competition is carried out through a series of intra-school and regional competitions, with regional winners awarded the prestigious ACG Cup title and cash awards. (more…)
Tags: acg cup, Brian Reagan, carlson, case competition, Jeff Oxman, m&a, mergers and acquisitions, tippie
Posted in Events, Faculty, FTMBA, Student Life | Comments Off
Tuesday, January 29th, 2013
Many UST MBA candidates are embarking on engaging experience today. The Graduate Business Career Services Department organized Shadow Day experiences with 40 professionals from General Mills, Target, UnitedHealth Group and many other local organizations. The Job Shadow experience provides MBA students an opportunity to interact as well as see the world of a leading professional.
This experience provides ample opportunity to network, gain insight as well as hands on experience in a professional setting. Although the scheduling and matching has already been completed, much more leg work is still required by the students. If you are taking part in an experience like this, here are a few suggestions and questions to prepare to fully engage the “Shadower” as well as the “Shadowee.” (more…)
Tags: General Mills, Job Shadow, Target, UnitedHealth Group
Posted in Career Services, FTMBA, Student Life | Comments Off
Friday, January 25th, 2013
As an entrepreneur, a seasoned marketing professional and a mother, Joelle Purvis-Allen has her plate full as a first-year Full-time UST MBA student. Participating in the National Black MBA Competition as the lone first-year, she has jumped right in since the beginning of the program. In the thick of final projects, papers and final exam preparations, she took a break over lunch to share her background and aspirations.
Purvis-Allen was a marketing manager for Nolan Company—now part of WinWholesale Company—and helped changed the company’s focus from wholesale to retail, hosting trade shows and other events to increase consumer engagement and sales of higher end, luxury items. Her love of event planning began there, and eventually she started her own business, Allen Events, providing event services for weddings, corporations and group travel. It is through working an event for one of her clients that she learned about the Full-time UST MBA program and its Outreach Scholarships.
“I love events,” Purvis-Allen says with a smile. With leadership lessons learned from her professional mentors Ken King (former VP of marketing at Noland) and Mark Smith (VP and regional manager at Noland), she led a successful business and hopes to continue after she finishes her MBA. “I really want to break into the global events scene and reinvent the event planning business,” she adds, “and I thought getting an MBA at St. Thomas would help me to look at this business from multiple perspectives.”
Though she has a passion for the corporate event marketing and planning world, it is not her ultimate goal. She wants to start a nonprofit event planning organization that takes at-risk youth and teaches them the event planning business. She believes there is a lot that the event planning process can teach them and it can reinforce and incorporate what they learn at school—from simple math skills to problem solving skills to interpersonal skills. The nonprofit would provide the kids with event planning jobs and the profits would go to supporting their education, given they maintain certain academic standing. When asked about the reasons behind this plan, she stated simply—“I just combined my passion for service with my passion for event planning. I want to leave a legacy.”
Tags: FTMBA, MBA, profile, UST MBA
Posted in FTMBA, Student Life | Comments Off
Friday, November 2nd, 2012
By Ujin Han, M.B.A. ’12
Family. Sports. Traveling. These are three things that Ryan Cathcart is passionate about – besides marketing and business, of course. He is currently enjoying his second year in the Full-time UST MBA program as the president of the Net Impact Club, which focuses its efforts on “businesses leaving positive social and environmental impact.” Cathcart recently organized a club event for the UST MBA students with Pentair at Target Field, where they discussed corporate responsibility with Todd Gleason, the president of the company’s integration and standardization team.
A Minnesota native, Cathcart returned to the Twin Cities working for the Hartford as a sales representative after attending Trinity University in San Antonio. After three years of working at the Hartford, he was presented with an opportunity to move forward with the company in sales. It was then that Cathcart decided to pursue his MBA and dream of becoming involved in strategic marketing role. (more…)
Tags: Ecolab, Hartford, Pentair
Posted in Career Services, FTMBA, Student Life | Comments Off
Thursday, October 25th, 2012
This post is by Jeff Pesek / TECHdotMN Co-founder and originally appeared there last Friday.
Video source: Fowler Challenge
The fourth annual Fowler Business Concept Challenge both commenced and consummated [last Friday], with Aaron Engler’s ‘Coach app’ coming in at first place on the graduate level, earning the MBA student a $10k scholarship award.
Described as a “the restaurant managers playbook,” Engler’s idea is to provide chain restaurants with a mobile business intelligence system that aggregates all the pertinent information they need to know to optimize their venue — POS, labor, sales, product spec, service times, etc. (more…)
Tags: Fowler, Fowler Business Concept Challenge
Posted in Entrepreneurship, EveningMBA, FTMBA, Student Life | Comments Off
Wednesday, October 24th, 2012
For the first time, the Opus College of Business sent a team of 4 Full-time MBA students to the National Black MBA Association/Chrysler Case Competition this year. The event was held September 27 and 28 in Indianapolis. What follows is a recap of the experience from one of the student participants, second-year MBA student Boubakar Jalloh.
The Case Competition team with Dean Puto, Assistant Dean Woodson and Professor Arnold.
As a team, we were honored to represent the University of Saint Thomas at the National Black MBA Association Chrysler Case Competition and are very grateful for the support and sponsorship Ecolab has provided to us in this journey. We were able to utilize the knowledge we have accumulated as MBA students at UST,as well as our experiences and diverse backgrounds, to bring substance and an actionable plan to the case.
In preparing for the case competition our strategy was to allocate responsibilities largely based on our individual strengths and expertise. This approach was most effective because it also provided a learning opportunity for all members, as we observed the thinking process that goes into every decision. Joelle Allen, for example, has a strong background in marketing and advertising, so we looked to her to guide a marketing mix campaign directed toward our target market. Similarly, Lissette Prendes’ strong background in finance means we relied on her great insights into the financial analysis of our case. (more…)
Tags: case competition, Chrysler Case Competition, Ecolab, National Black MBA Association, NBMBAA
Posted in Ethics, Events, FTMBA, Student Life | Comments Off
Thursday, October 18th, 2012
 Graduate business students and alumni are invited to attend Master’s Pub with presenter Megan Tamte, co-founder and CEO of Hot Mama.
Hot Mama is a chain of clothing boutiques catering to contemporary, fashion-loving moms. Tamte co-founded Hot Mama in 2004 with her husband, Mike. Together, they are on a mission to build a national brand that “empowers moms.” Tamte is passionate about motherhood and believes that all moms need to think about their beauty, pursue their passions and remember their dreams in order to be the best moms they can be. Currently, Hot Mama has 30 stores in 11 states, with plans to have 50 stores by 2015.
Join fellow graduate business classmates and alumni for business conversations. Free beer, wine, soft drinks and pizza will be available.
Date: Friday, November 2, 2012
Location: Minneapolis Campus, Opus Hall, Room 201, 4:30-6:30 p.m.
Agenda
4:30 p.m.: Social time
5:15 p.m.: Presentation and Q&A
6:00 p.m.: Social time
| RSVP to attend »
Attendance is free, but advance registration is required. Please register by October 31.
Current Opus College of Business graduate students and alumni attending the event are encouraged to bring colleagues or friends considering a graduate business degree to experience the unique St. Thomas atmosphere and community. |
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Tags: hot mama, masters pub
Posted in Alumni, Events, Student Life | Comments Off
Friday, October 12th, 2012
By Ujin Han, M.B.A. ’12
First year Full-time UST MBA students had an interesting joint class discussion this week. Four professors—Professor Rothausen-Vange (Organizational Behavior), Professor Malshe (Marketing), Professor Combs (Business Economics), and Professor Sanders (Statistics and Operations)–led a cross-class discussion of a case study about Harrah’s gaming.
It was an intense and lively 3 ½ hr discussion about Harrah’s strategy to differentiate themselves from the market from 1998-2005—from four different perspectives. Starting with situation analysis of the external economic factors and the data-driven consumer insights that prompted the change in strategy to tactical marketing and HR programs implemented, the students explored all the aspects that had to be managed for Harrah’s to be successful. (more…)
Tags: combs, curriculum, economics, integrated, malshe, marketing, OB, operations, organizational effectiveness, sanders, statistics, Teresa Rothausen-Vange
Posted in Faculty, FTMBA, Global Business, Student Life | Comments Off
Snow Day?
Wednesday, March 6th, 2013My daughter is not a fan of “snow days”. She was so happy that Minneapolis did not cancel classes today due to the weather. She eagerly pulled on her snow pants, jacket, hat, mittens and boots and off we went to school 15 minutes earlier than normal. Our regular commute takes about 25 minutes and I drive her to school every day. We arrived safely, with plenty of time to spare. She happily skipped through the snow into the building and couldn’t wait for “morning games” when she could go outside and play. But first, she pulled out her morning worksheet, grabbed a nicely sharpened pencil and got to work on her math worksheet. She knew the order of the day – worksheets, morning meeting, morning games, etc. She knew that today they also had Music and she loves that class. They are practicing for a performance coming up next week. She has been studying her songs for over a month and pretty much has the words, and the hand motions, memorized. (more…)
Tags: kenny, motivation, school, snow
Posted in Commentary, Student Life | Comments Off