As part of our professional development training and conversations, we are always discussing the importance of student’s on-line reputation and presence on social media websites. Here’s an interesting article and infographic that explains things from an employer’s perspective. Definitely worth the read…
How Recruiters Use Social Networks to Screen Candidates [INFOGRAPHIC]/.
It’s that exciting time in the semester when Intro to Business students begin selling their Venture Out products in and around the ACU community. The Loan Review meetings were last week and all groups have now received approval to procure or continue pre-selling their product.
Students in Intro to Business are presenting their product and mini-business plan to the Loan Review Board as part of the Venture Out project
The Venture Out class project is a frequently cited as a favorite project of COBA alums. Intro to Business students are assigned to teams within their class and together, they come up with a product to sell and a mini-business plan to explain how they will market it, drive customers to it, manage their inventory, and ultimately, what they will do with their profits. Favorite products of the past have been iphone covers, Kanye West style white shades, Rastafari wigs (hands down Dr. Lytle’s favorite!) and tshirts with clever, pop-culture sayings (“Do WORK, ACU”).
This year’s list of products reads very similar: tshirts, tank tops, Nike tempo shorts with ACU embroidered on the leg, iphone covers, and bracelets. Allison is a freshman marketing major, and her team is selling purple Nike tempo shorts with ACU embroidered on the leg. Allison says, ” We have pre-orders for 32 of 50 pairs of shorts that we need to sell. The typical reaction I’ve gotten when I mention the shorts is, ‘Oh, I’ve been wanting some of those!’. Since the campus store is unable to sell Nike products, ACU Nike shorts have been unavailable until now. Girls who already have Nike shorts are the ones who are buying them, because they’ve been looking for them for months or years and haven’t been able to find any. They then go home and tell their roommate how excited they are about finding the shorts and before we know it we have another order from someone we’ve never met”.
The other important component of the Venture Out project is the focus on philanthropy and giving back. 50% of the profits from each team will go back into the general COBA scholarship fund for future business majors. And the other 50% goes to a charity or cause of the group’s choice. Some examples of non-profit charities that have received donations from Venture Out teams are The American Cancer Society, Invisible Children, Eternal Threads and Make-A-Wish Foundation. Dr. Mark Phillips, professor of two of Intro to Business sections, says “the scholarship is about sustainability; the students’ work goes back into future students. The non-profit piece allows them to direct their giving to something they care passionately about; it not only gives them incentive to sell, it also starts them thinking about the role of business and profits in positively impacting the world.”
Venture Out also introduces our new business students (or undecided majors) the different roles within a sales team: the marketer, the accountant, the logistics manager, or the IS manager. At semester’s end, we hope the students have found a role or niche that they want to explore deeper, through classes, job shadowing, mentoring relationships or professional development experiences. And perhaps even ignite their passion for entrepreneurship. Allison says, “I’ve really enjoyed the project so far, because it has allowed me to work with my classmates to find a market niche and sell an exclusive product that is in very high demand. I’m learning that if you have the right product, entrepreneurship doesn’t seem like such a risk.”
Wednesday morning at 10am, 27 students, 2 COBA faculty, 1 Executive-In-Residence and his wife left dry and cool West Texas for the bright lights of THE big City. New York City. Dave Swearingen, COBA’s current Executive-In-Residence, is a former VP of Corporate Communications for Johnson & Johnson. He served as an elder at the Manhattan Church of Christ when he lived in New York, and he and his wife, Karen, have recently relocated to Abilene to be near family. Mr. Swearingen has arranged an incredible trip for our COBA students.
Dr. Lytle praying over NYC group before they leave for the airport
Their Thursday itinerary looked like this:
ACU students enjoyed a hearty breakfast at Lindy's at 7th Ave and 32nd Street
COBA group at CNN studios in New York City
In early September, COBA hosted two successful event planners, Luanna Cole and Rachel Hollis, for a Career Connect: Event Planning event. Over 75 students turned out to hear these two women share advice, insights and experience from their careers in wedding and event planning. You can read more about the events here.
And this past week, Rachel Hollis appeared on The Nate Berkus show, a nationally syndicated talk show focusing on interior design, decorating, entertaining and homemaking. Rachel is the Entertaining Contributor for Traditional Home magazine and she recreated a table scape from her September column for Mr. Berkus. Enjoy the clip! (Click on the sentence)
The Nate Berkus Show with special guest Rachel Hollis
Rachel Hollis on The Nate Berkus Show
Wednesday was the final LIVE round of COBA’s first annual Elevator Pitch competition. Ten business ideas were pitched – by a team of students or an individual. Six prizes were awarded, with the top team taking home $1500 for their pitch. The ten business idea pitches were judged based on the following categories:
These six prizes were awarded:
We were honored to have five highly successful businessmen make up our judging panel. Between the five of them, they’ve invested in or helped start over 1000 companies and have a passion for mentoring budding entrepreneurs. The judges were Dr. Jack Griggs, President and Director of Southwest Bancorp and former dean of the College of Business Administration, Mr. Jim Porter, Principal of Porter Capital Partners, Mr. David Bruce, Founder and CEO of Alliance Recruiting Resources, Mr. Matt Booth, VP of Regency Centers, and COBA’s very own, Dr. Rick Lytle.
Here is a list of the ten business pitches and the team members for the 2011 Springboard Elevator Pitch Competition:
Grand Prize $1,500
Campuzon
Karsten Goodman & Courtney Martin
Second Place $750
Double Impact Socks
Eldad Campbell & EJ Johnson
Third Place $250
Nascent
Nigel Bosch
Best Presentation Award $250
Misfortune Cookies
Robby Wiginton
Social Entrepreneurship Award $250
Red Thread Movement
Brittany Partridge & Samantha Sutherland
Audience Choice Award $250
Double Impact Socks
Eldad Campbell & EJ Johnson
The first annual Springboard Elevator Pitch Competition was a huge success and the packed room during the live final round testifies to the excitement this live competition generated here on campus. You can read more about the competition in this story, from the Abilene Reporter-News.
The Elevator Pitch is part of the slate of events, speakers and competitions in the Griggs Center for Entrepreneurship & Philanthropy. Students in any major can have a concentration in Entrepreneurship, and any student can participate in the competitions or attend any event. The Griggs Center also hosts four Entrepreneurs-In-Residence and is building a network of entrepreneurs that desire to have mentoring relationships with current students. As any entrepreneur will tell you – an essential component of success is building your own network of mentors and advisors. To that end, another component of the Griggs Center is the Springboard Accelerator – an on campus facility that houses student upstarts, where they have access not only to physical office space, but office equipment, phones, mailboxes, conference rooms and the guidance and advice of various business advisors (attorneys, investors, professors, and of course fellow student entrepreneurs).
Congratulations again to all of the finalists in this year’s inaugural competition!
Consider entering our next competition, our Springboard Ideas Challenge next spring. Find out more information here.
Dr. Lytle’s Consumer Behavior had an interesting class project: to go see if they could pump gas for Shell station customers. Lytle tasked the students with finding out if customers were interested in having their gas pumped, oil level checked, windshield cleaned and tire pressure checked. There was no cost for this service – students just asked the customers to answer a few questions in exchange for the service. Click on over to the Abilene Reporter-News to read how the project went and what our students learned about consumer behavior by pumping gas.
Dr. Lytle explains to the class how this research project will work
Dr. Lytle shows his Consumer Behavior class how to properly clean a windshield
Learning how to check oil levels
We are pleased to report our placement data for the graduating class of 2011. These numbers are self reported from students who graduated in May with a BBA in Management, Marketing, Accounting, Finance or Information Systems. If you are a May 2011 graduate and you need to update us with your new employer and salary information, please send an email to Tim Johnston at johnstont@acu.edu.
May 2011 Placement Data – BBA and M.Acc graduates