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Smith Business Close-Up
Archives - 2006
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December 21,
2006
What top business
schools are doing to prepare business
students for today's competitive
marketplace
Don’t miss Maryland Public
Television reporter Mindy Mintz’s
third installment in this three-part
series on employment trends.
In this special edition of
Smith Business Close-Up we talk
to members of the Smith School’s
Office of
Career Management team about
on-campus resources available to
both U.S. and international students
and when students should tap into
these resources.
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November 30,
2006
Former Hewlett-Packard
CEO and Smith alum Carly Fiorina
talks about revitalizing HP and
her experiences in corporate America.
In the next edition of Smith
Business Close-Up, Mindy Mintz
talks to former HP CEO Carly Fiorina
about her tenure at HP, her leadership
style and her rise to the top. Carly
Fiorina is the author of the recently
published book, Tough Choices.
She received her MBA from the Smith
School in 1980.
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November 16,
2006
What type of talent
are some of the area’s top companies
and recruiters looking for?
Don’t miss Maryland Public
Television reporter Mindy Mintz’s
second installment in this three-part
series on job market trends in 2006.
In this special edition of Smith
Business Close-Up, you’ll find
out what top employers and recruiters
are looking for. Corporate executives
and recruiters; members of the Smith
School’s
Office of Career Management
team, Peter Brown and
Monica Shutte, discuss the skills
and experience recruiters are looking
for and the best ways differentiate
yourself in today’s competitive
marketplace.
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November 2,
2006
Local Entrepreneurs
- and Smith MBA Alums -
Attempt to Break Up Big Game Monopoly
Hasbro is the 800-pound gorilla
of the $5-billion board game industry,
owning Parker Brothers, Milton Bradley
and dozens of smaller companies.
Under these conditions, the challenges
of successfully marketing a new
board game to the mass market are
enormous.
In this edition of Smith Business
Close-Up local entrepreneurs
and Smith MBAs Dominic Crapuchettes
and Satish Pillalmarri, co-owners
of North Star Games, discuss the
challenges of starting their own
business and how new start-ups can
stay ahead of the pack in an increasingly
competitive marketplace.
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October 19,
2006
Smith's Undergraduate
Career Fair
Investors, consumers and businesses
have had a number of concerns in
2006:
high fuel prices, less-than-stellar
job growth and volatile swings in
the stock market. What are top employers
looking for and what can recent
graduates expect? Don’t miss
Maryland Public Television
reporter Mindy Mintz’s special report
from Smith's Undergraduate Career
Fair. Tune in to find out more
about what top employers and recruiters
are looking for and for an assessment
of job trends from Smith’s Office
of Career Management team, Peter
Brown and Monica Shutte.
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October 5,
2006
How RFID technology
is transforming business
RFID (radio frequency identification)
employs small tags with microchips
that allow items to be identified
and tracked by scanners in real
time. As a result, the technology
enables such efficiencies as instantaneously
tracking how rapidly goods are moved
to shelves, monitoring inventory
levels and even automatic checkout.
RFID has been embraced as the next
generation of bar coding by retailers
seeking to streamline cost efficiency.
But RFID's potential goes much further
– with researchers and early-adopters
such as the faculty at the supply
chain management center at the Smith
School exploring RFID applications
in industries including health care
and even agriculture.
In this edition of Smith Business
Close-Up, Sandor Boyson,
professor and co-director of the
supply chain management center,
leads Maryland Public Television
reporter Charles Robinson through
an introduction to RFID and demonstration
of the Smith School's RFID supply
chain lab.
Sun Microsystems has donated advanced
RFID (radio frequency identification)
equipment and software, making the
University of Maryland's Robert
H. Smith School of Business the
only business school in the world
with such equipment and research/educational
capabilities on its campus. This
gift has enabled the Smith School
to create a unique, end-to-end model
of the RFID supply chain – including
tags, readers, and networking hardware
and software that link the scanners
to computer databases. The gift
represents a Smith School initiative
supporting leading, world-class
academic, government and corporate
exchanges and advancements to supply
chain research.
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September
7, 2006
How globalization
and localization effect U.S. businesses
As a global superpower, the U.S.
has the world’s best universities
and a strong financial system, but
with less than 5 percent of the
world’s population, the U.S. economy
accounts for almost a third of the
global economy (or GDP). What does
this mean in terms of globalization
and international competitiveness?
In this edition of Smith Business
Close-Up, Vinod Jain
-- director of the Center for International
Business Education and Research
and senior director for the office
of professional programs and services
at the Smith School and a recognized
expert in corporate strategy and
international business -- will discuss
globalization and localization –
and their role in American companies’
success. To learn more about globalization
and localization, plan to attend
the
Digital Economy Forum 2006.
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August 24,
2006
Feature Fatigue:
Overloaded on Bells and Whistles?
Do you use only half the buttons
on your cell phone? Did you purchase
your coffee maker because it had
so many interesting options but
now don’t know how to use it? If
so, you are not alone. In this
Smith Business Close-Up,
Professor Roland Rust, executive
director of the Center for Excellence
in Service and marketing department
chair, explains why too many product
features result in a phenomenon
called “feature fatigue.”
Products crowded with features may
be more attractive to consumers
in the store, but too many features
ultimately make a product overwhelming
and hard to use, which leads to
dissatisfaction with the product
and perhaps even with the company
that manufactured it. Why do consumers
initially choose products with many
features and do these features enhance
the lifetime value of the product?
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August 3,
2006
What you need
to know when buying a used car
In July 2005, new car sales hit
a record of 1.8 million in sales;
60 percent of these auto sales involved
trade-ins. How much should you expect
to pay for your new car and how
much value are you giving to your
current one? In this edition of
Smith Business Close-Up Professor
Joydeep Srivastava provides
tips on how to negotiate when buying
a new car and trading in your old
one. Srivastava is an associate
professor at the Smith School and
a recognized expert in managerial
and consumer decision making, bargaining
and auctions, marketing distribution
channels, pricing, and behavioral
economics.
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July 20, 2006
Utility Crisis Cause
for Concern
When Baltimore Gas & Electric
(BG&E) distributes their next billing
statements, Maryland customers are
expected see a cost increase of
almost 75 percent starting this
month. In this edition of Smith
Business Close-Up, Professor
Charles E. Olson, a recognized
expert in the field of energy economics,
will discuss the growing concerns
of rising utility prices
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July 8, 2006
How Technology Can
Make A Difference During A Natural
Disaster
In the wake of natural disasters,
such as Hurricane Katrina and the
2004 Asian tsunami, efficient data
management programs are critical;
but these data management systems
can be costly and difficult to manage.
In this edition of Smith Business
Close-Up,
Louiqa Raschid, professor
in the department of
decision and
information technologies at
the Smith School and a recognized
expert in information management,
data integration, health information
systems, and humanitarian IT applications,
will discuss how technology can
make the difference between success
and failure when it comes to disaster
management.
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June 22, 2006
The Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship
In this special edition of
Smith Business Close-Up, find
out how the
Dingman
Center for Entrepreneurship
has supported entrepreneurship in
the Washington, D.C. area for 20
years.
The Dingman Center and its team
of about 20 people, which includes
entrepreneurs-in-residence, senior
fellows and MBA students, offers
students and regional entrepreneurs
assistance evaluating business plans,
mentoring, early stage capital networking
and a host of other services.
The Dingamn Center has helped
students develop a company that
sells university-branded jewelry;
a board game company that has just
put out two games called “Cluzzle”
and “Wits and Wagers,”; and a beer
company that’s up and running and
on tap in restaurants in the D.C.
region – and these are just a few
examples of how the Dingman Center
encourages entrepreneurship in a
practical way. Reporter Lou Davis
talks to Dingman associates and
scholars, providing a history and
overview of the successful center.
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June 8, 2006
What companies and managers need
to know about successful internationalization
Though much research shows that
companies learn strategic processes
from experience, little is known
about the content of that learning
and how firms actually learn over
time. Relying on country entry data
from technology-based entrepreneurial
firms headquartered in Finland,
the U.S., and Singapore, Smith School
professor Chris Bingham’s latest
research explores the intriguing
insight that the creation of strategic
processes involves following simple
rules rather than honing detailed
routines.
In this edition Smith Business
Close-Up
Christopher Bingham, assistant
professor of strategic management
at the Smith School and a recognized
expert in new venture internationalization
and strategy in highly dynamic markets,
will discuss the strategic processes
required for successful internationalization.
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May 25, 2006
How managers can create a culture
of trust in the workplace
Managers applaud innovation,
but many supervise, poised to slap
wrists. Does rewarding employees
who repeatedly try new things and
fail, lead to more innovation and
more long-term success? Often the
mixed-message style of management
leaves employees intimidated, ultimately
taking fewer risks and “innovating”
less. How can managers help employees
address workplace fears and remain
competitive?
In this edition of Smith Business
Close-Up, we’ll discuss how
to create a culture of trust and
why businesses are turning to this
approach more and more frequently.
Joining us is
Gerald Suarez, PhD, executive
director of the
QUEST
program and executive education
senior fellow at the Smith School,
and a recognized expert in organizational
redesign and quality management.
Prior to his work at the Smith
School, Dr. Suarez served with distinction
for eleven years at the White House
under two administrations. He served
as its Director of Presidential
Quality and as Director of Customer
Support and Organizational Development.
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May 18, 2006
The Biodiesel Phenomenon
Because of rising gasoline prices
and environmental concerns, Americans
are constantly searching for alternative
energy sources.
The Dingman
Center for Entrepreneurship
at the University of Maryland’s
Robert H. Smith School of Business
has partnered with Silverthorn BioFuels
and the Maryland Soybean Board to
create a mobile biodiesel education
and production lab to promote awareness
of this renewable fuel.
In this edition of Smith Business
Close-Up we’ll discuss why biodiesel
is becoming increasingly popular
in the U.S. with
Dan Goodman, Executive Director
of the Biodiesel University and
a Technology Commercialization Fellow
at the Smith School.
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April 27,
2006
Is what you say more important than
how you say it?
Message content vs. creative
execution has been a longstanding
debate in advertising circles. Over
the past decades, prominent advertisers
have continued to debate this issue.
How and why do certain components
of ads trigger responses from consumers?
In this edition of Smith Business
Close-Up, we’ll discuss message
content with
Hank Boyd, a Tyser Teaching
Fellow in the marketing department
at the Smith School.
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April 13,
2006
How disruptive innovations spur
growth
When companies keep improving
their existing products and services
to meet their best customers' needs,
they eventually run into major challenges.
By doing everything right, they
create opportunities for new companies
to take their markets away. Established
companies historically have struggled
when trying to create new markets.
Success seems fleeting and unpredictable.
How can companies stay ahead of
the competition in an increasingly
competitive marketplace?
In this edition of Smith Business
Close-Up, we’ll discuss disruptive
innovation with
Cheryl Druehl, an assistant
professor of decision and information
technologies at the Smith School
and a recognized expert in operations
and supply chain management.
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March 30,
2006
Increasing the bottom line - effective
strategies for supply chain management
In recent years, a lot of publicity
has been generated regarding the
term “supply chain management.”
Businesses that implement effective
strategies to manage the supply
chain are more competitive and profitable.
But what exactly is supply chain
management and why does it matter?
In this edition of Smith Business
Close-Up we’ll discuss what
businesses need to know about supply
chain management. Joining us is
Phil Evers, associate professor
of logistics management at the Smith
School and a recognized expert in
two critical aspects of the supply
chain: inventory and transportation.
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March 16,
2006
Why are consumer product returns
on the rise?
Consumer product returns reached
$100 billion annually for the United
States alone. These returns affect
retailers, manufacturers, and consumers.
Why is this a growing concern for
retailers and manufacturers and
what strategies are being tested
and implemented in order to decrease
the number of consumer returns?
In this edition of Smith Business
Close-Up, we’ll discuss product
returns and what businesses can
do to reduce the rate of returns.
Joining us is
Gil Souza, assistant professor
of operations management at the
Smith School and a recognized expert
in supply chain management, including
reverse logistics, and closed-loop
supply chains.
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March 2, 2006
How is political advertising influencing
the way businesses market consumer
products?
Political advertising has changed
the way many businesses market their
products. What do consumers think
of "bashing" the competition and
what types of products will be most
impacted by this relatively new
practice?
In this edition of Smith Business
Close-Up,
Mark Walsh discusses what
business leaders need to know in
order to prepare for this new type
of marketing strategy.
Mark Walsh is a recognized media
expert and a Senior Fellow at the
Smith School.
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February 16,
2006
Venture capitalists in the dot.com
era
The mid-1990s brought the Internet
to the public’s attention. Many
young entrepreneurs realized that
new business models could be created
based on the Internet’s enormous
potential. This frenzy of investment
is often chronicled as ending with
a “crash.” But is this analysis
correct? Was the dot.com era more
successful than was originally believed?
In this edition of Smith Business
Close-Up,
Brent Goldfarb discusses
how dot.com era business strategies
spread even though they were inappropriate
for most businesses that tried them.
The adoption of these strategies,
surprisingly, may have led to too
little entry in the dot.com era.
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February 2,
2006
Online “pop-up” ads: are they really
working?
As online advertising becomes
more and more prevalent, these trends
provide continued optimism for online
marketers. A common practice among
online advertisers is the “pop-up”
ad – an online ad that immediately
appears when an online visitor arrives
at a particular home page. Online
consumers often find this practice
to be annoying. As a result, these
ads can be ineffective when it comes
to attracting new customers, and,
worse yet, may even cause visitors
to exit the site and possibly never
return.
In this edition of Smith Business
Close-Up,
Wendy Moe, assistant professor
of marketing will discuss “pop-up”
ads and consumers’ perceptions of
them.
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January 19,
2006
The Impact of Cyber-Security Breaches
Though cyber-security has improved
since September 11, threats of terrorism,
the war in Iraq, and an increasing
number of computer hackers make
computer networks vulnerable.
In this edition of Smith Business
Close-Up,
Larry Gordon discusses ways
businesses can determine the optimum
level of funding to adequately secure
computer network systems and data.
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