Graduating student holding up phone to take photo inside Breslin Center at commencement

Spring 2018

The spring edition of the Broad College Digital Magazine takes a look back at a school year filled with student triumphs, faculty discoveries, and campus progress.

Business Model Competition

Students’ ideas abound from Broad Business Model competition

A service helping people bypass lines at popular venues. Automated home health care scheduling. Gluten-free and dairy-free snack bites. Those were some of the ideas to top the latest Broad Business Model competition, where participating students with innovative ideas for market got to formalize those plans, in turn learning lessons by doing and splitting up to $50,000 in scholarship winnings.

Faculty Spotlights

More commercial power use could mean higher stock prices

A company’s power use may tip you off to increased production, growing revenues, and a stock that could be poised to take off. Who knew? Broad College associate professor Hayong Yun did. His research discovering that stock tell was recently honored with the William F. Sharpe Award from the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, one of the nation’s leading finance journals.

A renewed emphasis on ethics at Broad College of Business in 2018 and beyond

It’s not just about doing business; it’s about doing business right. That’s the goal of an increased emphasis on ethics at the Broad College. In 2018, that took the form of a new ethics curriculum in the spring and new class requirements that will take effect in the coming fall. “Ethical dilemmas are part of our daily personal and professional lives. A renewed emphasis on ethics is absolutely crucial in today’s business world, as is evidenced by daily reminders of transgressions by corporate officials as reported by our news media,” said professor Paulette Stenzel.

Remembering Jim Henry

Former Dean James B. “Jim” Henry’s legacy can be seen in the buildings that anchor the business college. But it also can be felt in the impact he had on the people of Broad College. Henry, who served as dean from 1994 to 2000 and who passed away in December of 2017, was remembered during a May 31 memorial at the namesake James B. Henry Center for Executive Development, which opened on his watch.

‘Robots in the wild’ heading for our streets, but a Broad professor asks if we are ready

Driverless cars may solve problems but create others along the way. That’s the take of professor Brian Pentland in the wake of a recent automated vehicle workshop hosted by MSU where professors, professionals and politicians considered the societal impacts the future transportation trend may indirectly cause. “Technical design is social design,” Pentland said. “What optimizes the performance of the vehicle will almost certainly have an effect on cities” as currently configured.

Pavilion Update

Pavilion begins to take shape amid Broad College landscape

There’s a new building rising amid the campus landscape. The Business Pavilion has evolved from designs on blueprints to a physical steel-and-metal structure towering next to the North Business Complex, after a groundbreaking during the 2017–18 school year. Progress is visible to all passers-by, as tarps have been pulled back, revealing dozens of workers clambering around the skeletal structure. The $60 million teaching and collaboration center is on track to open in the fall of 2019. See the latest developments on our Pavilion site.

Commencement Recap

Time to make a difference: graduates are launched into the world from 2018 Commencement

Nearly 1,000 Broad College undergraduates became college alumni on Saturday, May 5. Commencement speaker Brian Kesseler (BA Financial Administration ’88), chief executive officer of Tenneco Inc., celebrated in advance their upcoming contributions to the world, while student speaker Kaylee Zajac (BA Supply Chain Management, Economics ’18) looked back at the shared path experienced in different ways by her and her peers. Graduates themselves reflected on their journeys, including those that overcame challenges and others that broke barriers. In all, the Class of 2018’s departure was a sight to see.

The Broad View

Champions times two at National College Sales Competition

What’s better than winning one national title? Winning two national titles, of course. That’s a lesson in success learned by Broad Spartans at the 2018 National College Sales Competition, where the MSU team took the overall team championship and marketing senior Heidi Surdyk won the individual national title by topping 144 competitors from 72 universities across the nation. NCSC is the oldest and most prestigious university sales competition in the world. Congrats to Heidi and her teammates!

 

Broad alum helps HAMILTON go from coast to coast

Channeling the frenzy surrounding the smash hit Broadway musical HAMILTON is like riding a tiger. But that’s the challenge being embraced by John Gilmour (BA Management, Theater ’06), who manages brand engagement and awareness for the coast-to-coast sensation as well as overseeing communications strategy and implementation for HAMILTON’s Chicago productions and a national tour that will hit MSU’s Wharton Center in 2019.

 

Biggby Coffee sharpens its marketing plans with help of Broad EMBA students

Having the Michigan-based coffee franchiser “’B’ a Biggby-er Part of Our Community” was both the title and intent of a strategic marketing strategy devised and pitched by a quintet of professor Ayalla Ruvio’s Executive MBA students from the Management Education Center in Troy. “I truly appreciate Biggby providing our students this opportunity,” Ruvio said. “Connecting learning with doing is critical in developing well-rounded business leaders.”

Quicken Loans, DTE Energy pick the brains of Broad undergraduate students

It isn’t every day that undergraduates get to pitch their ideas to some of Detroit’s corporate heavyweights. But that’s what some Spring 2018 Marketing 355 and Business 190 students got to do as part of Quicken Loan’s “E-tership Program” and DTE Energy’s “Energize Innovation” contest. “This project allowed us to work with the company founders in real time, addressing problems that they are facing today. This type of experiential learning is critical for truly pushing our students to develop innovative and creative solutions,” said professor Ken Szymusiak.

 

Rankings Highlights