By Pat Lopes Harris, Media Relations Director

Despite stock market turmoil, optimism reigned at the SJSU Center for Banking and Financial Services Economic Summit 2011.

Over 300 financial, legal and community leaders gathered at Morris Dailey auditorium Aug. 18 for breakfast and a panel discussion. The event was presented by Bridge Bank in association with Hopkins & Carley, a law corporation. Associate sponsors included Filice Insurance, Sensiba San Filippo, the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal and AlwaysOn.

Please visit the SJSU Today blogs page to read more.

By Pat Lopes Harris, Media Relations Director

SJSU College of Business Dean David M. Steele has received a 2011 Leadership in Technology Management Award from the Executive Committee of the Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology at Portland State University. He will travel to Oregon August 2 to deliver a keynote address at the center’s annual conference. The address, “Crises in the Middle East and Japan – Implications for the U.S. Economy and Technology Management,” reflects Steele’s academic and professional experiences.

Please visit the SJSU Today blog page to read more.

I am deeply saddened by the tragic shooting of two students in our College, both Accounting majors. Please visit the SJSU Today blogs for more details. 

I offer my deep condolences to the families and friends, fellow students, faculty and staff affected by this tragedy. This is a very sad day for all of us, marred by senseless violence.

I want to reiterate Interim President Don Kassing’s message yesterday: Please remember that counselors are available to meet with students on a walk-in basis and by appointment, and will even meet with students offsite. The telephone number is 924-5910. For more information, visit the SJSU Counseling Services page.

David Steele, Dean
College of Business
Lucas Graduate School of Business

Ratemyprofessors.com Announces 2010-2011 Highest Rated Professors and Universities
Originally posted in MTV Press on April 25, 2011

San Jose State University’s David Mease Named Top Rated Professor

RateMyProfessors.com, the largest online destination for professor ratings, released its annual lists ranking the highest rated college professors and universities based on student’s ratings from the site. San Jose State University’s David Mease, a business professor, is ranked “Best University Professor,” followed by Dr. Kimora, a criminal justice professor from John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Kateryna Schray an English professors at Marshall University. New this year, the top 25 Universities were chosen not only based on professor ratings, but also campus ratings. Of that list, Brigham Young University boasts the highest rated, followed by Florida State University and University of Wisconsin – Madison.

Please visit the SJSU Today blogs for more details.

Two of the three COB teams took first place in their respective divisions at the International Collegiate Business Strategy Competition, which concluded Saturday at Cal State Long Beach. Together the three teams brought home six trophies, the best showing by the SJSU teams since 2008.

Now in its 47th year, and hosted by SJSU during the 1990s, the ICBSC is believed to be the longest continuously running business student competition in the US.

Each student team runs a simulated company for 20 quarters against other teams in their division. The main award is for the financial performance of their companies, but teams are also eligible for an award for the accuracy and realism of their printed reports.

Winning all possible awards was Toys With Sol, a combined CMBA/MBA One team that won first in their division both for company performance and for best reports. Led by CEO Patrick Grogan (CMBA), the team also included Christopher Heavingham (CMBA), Nafisa Jhaveri (CMBA), Casey Holland (MBA One), Nghia Nguyen (MBA One) and Shaun Teacher (Masters in Biotechnology). Although trailing when they arrived in Long Beach, the team won over the judges both through skillful execution of their core strategy and also through their masterful (albeit sleep deprived) presentation to judges Saturday morning.

The other graduate team, G_Input, took 2nd place in their division for company performance as well as the top prize for best reports. Led by Dan Duong, this MBA One team also included Adam Harlow, Chris Heuser, John Shippy and David Van Der Steen.

Tower Toys, an undergraduate team of six Sbona Honors Students from A&F, won first for company performance and runner up for reports. Led by CEO Jason Lopez, the team also included Monikka O’Neil, Kevin Tran, Michael Tran, Raa Valencia, and Lakshmi Venkatesan.

The students were very grateful for the presence of Associate Dean Deborah Crown joined the three teams for the Saturday awards banquet. In the six years I’ve been a coach, this is the first time I’ve seen a faculty member at the competition who wasn’t a coach, judge or a member of the host university.

Also present at CSULB were two retired COB faculty, Abdel El-Shaieb and Steve Achtenhagen, who served as ICBSC judges (but not for our teams.)

For more information and pictures of the winning teams, visit the International Collegiate Business Strategy Competition Website

The Lucas Graduate School of Business of San José State University is announcing its first Global Innovation Forum Silicon Valley in partnership with IBM and SRI International. The theme of the Forum is “Innovation and the Digital Generation”.

As corporations focus on nurturing innovation to create sustainable competitive advantages, they are coming across a new, demographic challenge. The Digital Generation, people born between 1980 and 1995 and raised in the digital age, are entering the workforce and climbing the corporate ladder. According to recent research, they bring different skills, priorities, needs and values to the workplace.

The focus of this conference addresses how the Digital Generation will affect companies’ ability to innovate quickly and effectively. More specifically, what are the opportunities and challenges of innovating for and with the Digital Generation? How can universities and learning institutions help the Digital Generation fully develop their creativity and innovative potential? How can companies tap into their innovative potential, engage the Digital Generation as customers and employees, and foster effective collaboration with older generations?

This Forum brings together business, government, and academia interested in this theme to identify critical issues, share and document best practices, and initiate future research.

Please visit the Global Innovation Forum website for more details.

The Silicon Valley Center of Entrepreneurship held their annual Neat Ideas Fair last December where over 75 projects were showcased for competition. Judges from the College of Business and Silicon Valley companies ranked projects based on their creativity, innovation and viability. In addition to Business faculty members, 26 external judges assisted in judging the three contests: Best Exhibit; Elevator Pitch; Written Executive Summary; and the Social Innovation Award.

According to Dr. Anu Basu, Director of the Silicon Valley Center of Entrepreneurship, judges based their decisions on overall presentation, communication of idea and its value, target market knowledge, competitive edge and uniqueness, as well as feasibility and practicality.

The Student Union’s Barrett Ballroom – where the event is held – was lined with poster boards and business prototypes as students eagerly stood by to answer inquiries about their proposed “neat ideas.” Going green and solar energy seemed to be a prominent theme among project submissions this year, as well as several online business concepts. Some other noticeable project models included a book scanner, which provided digital access to books and the Automatic Utility Shut Off display that demonstrated how a device can shut off home utilities from remote locations. Other business ideas included YumSprout, an online service company that provided restaurants with marketing and advertising tools, as well as Hookah Heater, which used coal and a hookah to generate heat.

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On December 20th the College of Business held its Fall 2010 Convocation ceremony to honor this year’s Summer and Fall graduates. The ceremony, held at the San José State University Event Center, was once again at near capacity. The excitement from both spectators and graduates could be felt by all. In the Convocation ceremony, 487 graduating students were recognized for their accomplishments; these students were from both the undergraduate and graduate programs.

A red flare of poinsettias lined the convocation stage as students walked across to greet and be congratulated by the College’s Deans – a customary convocation practice. Each student was individually recognized as they crossed and was photographed with the Deans. In the background, a large screen displayed well wishes from families of graduating students as well as messages from the graduates themselves.

Alumnus Ronald VandenBerghe gave a heartfelt convocation address where he credited the College of Business for providing the building blocks of his career. Ronald graduated from SJSU with honors in Business Administration in 1959 and is the Founder and President of VandenBerghe Properties, Inc.

In his speech, Ronald laid out “Six Great Truths” that he offered as personal and professional advice to graduates. Ronald’s pearls of wisdom included: education, specialization, management of risk, networking, delegating and to exemplify honesty and integrity. In his address Ronald also assured students that their hard work in college was worth it and congratulated them on their accomplishments.

This year’s ceremony also showcased a student address, a new component added to the convocation. The student speaker, Karan Bakshi, dedicated his speech to his grandfather whose advice inspired his collegiate career. Karan jokingly described his grandfather as “scary.” Karan added a touch of humor to the ceremony, by detailing his Evacutracks adventures in the stair wells of the college buildings.

The ceremony highlighted not only graduates, but also College of Business scholarship recipients. At this year’s event, the following scholarship recipients were acknowledged:

• Ronald and Patricia VandenBerghe Family Scholarship: Carrie Kerns, MSA program and Patrick Grogan, MBA program.
• Most Outstanding Graduating MBA Student, MSA Student, MST Student Awards: Don Biasotti, MBA program; Chao Li, MSA program; Kathleen Fitzpatrick, MST program.

The College of Business would like to once again congratulate all of its graduates and extend well wishes to them on their future professional endeavors.

Have you got a new business idea? Are you wondering what to do next?
Here’s a great opportunity for you to showcase your idea and walk away with exciting prizes!

Join the YouNoodle Group for the Neat Ideas Fair:
http://younoodle.com/groups/2010svnif

Register Now, latest by Nov 21, 2010

What: The 2010 Silicon Valley Neat Ideas Fair
When: Dec 7, 2010, 9 a.m to 5 p.m
Where: Barrett Ball Room, Student Union Building, San Jose State University
Why: Get feedback on your idea from seasoned entrepreneurs and investors; Interact with peers, entrepreneurs, investors, and build entrepreneurial teams

Prizes Worth $5,000 Will Be Awarded At The 2010 Fair

For more details please visit SVNIF Webpage. For enquiries please email Dr. Anu Basu at anu.basu@sjsu.edu or Rakshit Ashtekar at Rakshit.Ashtekar@sjsu.edu

From the SolarTech weekly newsletter, October 18, 2010

Building on a successful collaboration earlier in 2010, two teams of business students from the Sbona Honors Program at San José State are now studying aspects of residential solar adoption on behalf of SolarTech and its members. A team of finance students is validating the estimates of various PV calculators, while a marketing team is asking consumers about their reasons for adoption (or non-adoption) of rooftop solar panels.

Cooperation by SolarTech members in these studies – as well as planned interviews and surveys of solar HR managers – will help SolarTech and the industry advance their goal of promoting solar adoption in California.

The finance team of Chris Chow, Y Nguyen and Nick Sabbatini is comparing the predictions of public calculators such as NREL’s Solar Advisor Model for a range of California locations. They are also seeking actual performance data and will be testing the sensitivity of the various calculators.

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This interview with Jenny Ming, president and C.E.O. of Charlotte Russe, a clothing chain, was conducted and condensed by Adam Bryant. Ms. Ming is a former president of Old Navy.

Jenny Ming

Q. How do you run meetings?

A. I want a really authentic, good conversation. We had interns this summer, and in the beginning they were afraid to speak. But in the meantime, they are our customer — I mean, literally — because they’re 21, 22, and that’s who we sell to. So in the beginning, they wouldn’t say how they feel.

And I said: “Tell me what you love, what you don’t love. You have to have an opinion because actually I pay for your opinion. I pay you to have a point of view, good or bad.” And toward the end of the summer, they couldn’t wait to tell me what they thought. Most people can’t wait to tell you what they think anyway, but they didn’t know that they could.

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While visiting campus on Oct. 14, Google plans to recruit students from the College of Business for a two-year training program, said Google’s global communications and public affairs representative.

“We are looking for people who are willing to tackle the big challenges and come up with innovative solutions — people who think outside the box,” Jordan Newman said. “We definitely want people who aren’t afraid to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty.”

The Internal Technology Residency Program incorporates about 30 graduates and is designed to teach recruits how to support the technology and software systems used by Google employees, according to the program’s website.

“We were very selective,” Newman said. “At the end of the two years, there is always the possibility that (participants) will be converted into full-time employees.”

Applications are only available to graduating seniors in the management information systems department, with interviews for those selected being held on Oct. 22, said department chair Timothy Hill.

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MIS professor Dr. Stephen Kwan received a 2010 IBM faculty award. The IBM Faculty Award is a very competitive worldwide program intended to:

• Foster collaboration between researchers at leading universities worldwide and those in IBM research, development and services organizations; and

• Promote courseware and curriculum innovation to stimulate growth in disciplines and geographies that are strategic to IBM.

3rd Annual Bay Area Retail Leadership Center Conference

September 21, 2010
Student Union/Barrett Ballroom

“Enhancing Productivity Via Innovative Technology and Systems”

For more information, please visit the BARC Retail Leadership Conference page

College of Business offers the following scholarships:
Valla Merit Scholarship, Chizen Merit Scholarship, Donn A. Burch Scholarship and Thayer Scholarship.

For more details please, visit the Scholarship Opportunities page