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Mooney Wins University Award of Excellence in Leadership
J. Lowell Mooney, Ph.D., CPA, CGMA, CMA, CFM, Parker College director of graduate studies and professor of accounting, has won the Georgia Southern University Award of Excellence in Leadership. This award recognizes administrator-level employees, who, through their extraordinary leadership over the past year, demonstrate exemplary responsive leadership to students, colleagues, and other customers of Georgia Southern University while, at the same time, reflecting the Georgia Southern values of collaboration, academic excellence, discovery and innovation, integrity, openness and inclusion, and sustainability. Rand Ressler, Ph.D., associate dean, Parker College of Business, stated, this is “a well-deserved recognition for all [Lowell] does for the Parker College and Georgia Southern!”
Georgia Southern Parker College Students Wins #1 Role-Play University in the RNMKRS Spring 2024 Sales Competition
by Travis Brickey
At the Spring 2024 RNMKRS Sales Competition held on April 15, RNMKRS hosted 1,977 student competitors in the Standard role-play competition and 112 students in its Pro Role-Play competition. With 47 different universities represented, students from Georgia Southern’s Parker College of Business competed against some of the nation’s top collegiate sales programs, including, Harvard University, University of Nebraska, University of Wisconsin La Crosse, University of Arkansas, Auburn University, University of Kansas, and Florida State University. Students representing Georgia Southern’s Center for Sales Excellence went to work to defend their title and maintained the Center’s reputation as a perennial RNMKRS high-performer and one of the nation’s top sales programs.
“We are so proud of our students and the effort they put into this competition,” explained Linda Mullen, Ph.D., associate professor of marketing and co-director of the Center for Sales Excellence at Georgia Southern University. “Ten semesters in a row, the students of Georgia Southern have excelled in the RNMKRS sales role-play competition. The RNMKRS Pro role-play is extremely challenging, and it pushes our students to demonstrate the grit and determination needed to succeed in a career in professional selling. I applaud the efforts of RNMKRS for always staying ahead of the curve and continuing to innovate the field of sales education.”
Notable honors earned in the RNMKRS Pro Role-Play sales competition include
RNMKRS Pro Top School – Georgia Southern University (#1 overall) amongst 5 universities
RNMKRS Pro # 1 Role-Play Sales Competitor – Katie Jebavy (#1 overall) amongst 112 competitors
RNMKRS Pro Role-Play Top 10 – K. Jebavy (#1), J. Buice (#2), N. Howard (#3), A. Hertel (#4), M. Spigner (#5), A. Meade (#6), B. Davis (#7), J. Wilcox (#8), A. Scott (#9), and Amelia Pulley (#10)
RNMKRS Pro most role-play attempts – Christian Perez (177 total attempts, #1 overall)
RNMKRS Pro Top Coach Recognition – Linda Mullen
Notable honors earned in the RNMKRS Standard Role-Play sales competition include
RNMKRS Standard Top School – Georgia Southern University (#1 overall) amongst 46 universities
RNKMRS Role-Play Standard Role-Play Top 20 – Chasen Lewis (#9 overall), Ashley Davis (#10 overall), Ryan Esz (#12 overall), and Riley Ingram (#15 overall) amongst 1,977 total competitors
RNMKRS Standard Role-Play most role-play attempts – Anna Larsson (280 total attempts, #1 overall)
RNMKRS Standard Top Coach Recognition – Travis Brickey, Ph.D., lecturer of marketing and co-director of the Center for Sales Excellence
Most Career Connections In-Class Onboarding: 20+ connections with Cintas from Billy Jones’s, Ph.D., assistant professor of marketing and co-director of the Center for Sales Excellence Professional Selling course
Congratulations to the Center for Sales Excellence student participants and faculty coaches on their wins. To learn more, click here.
Message from the Dean – April 2024
The Parker College is accredited by AACSB International: The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB for short). Around the world, AACSB accredits approximately 1,000 business schools, and, as one of those, we participate in various AACSB-related events. We use these to learn, to market, to connect, and to build the reputation and footprint of the Parker College. At a recent event, I attended a keynote address on the topic of “strategic foresight.”
If you’ve never heard the term, “strategic foresight,” I’ll explain it this way, the old is new again. By that, I mean that all of us, academics and businesspeople alike, continue to struggle with ambiguity. We struggle, especially when making decisions and investing resources without high levels of clarity. Put simply, we want to know how things will work out before taking any action ourselves. Should we invest in this alternative or that? Should we open a new office or deploy a new technology? More difficult even than these are questions about the more distant future. How will AI impact us, and what should we do about it today? What about the risks of a recession, an energy shock, or some shift in work itself, such as we saw in the pandemic? We cannot see the future any better than we can see around a corner. So, how can we possibly plan when we have no information? How can we be “data-driven” when we have no data? This was the focus of our keynote, as it has for years been the focus of scholars in my field of strategic management.
Why, then, is the old new again, and why do these questions persist? Well, because the answers are hard and often require doing things that are contrary to our natures. Consider some examples. First, the greater the uncertainty, the more we should be skeptical of our plans. With high uncertainty, it is best to have lots of contingencies, alternatives, and options. It is not perfect, but it is realistic. Second, use different time frames for different decisions and commitments. Not everything fits into a 5- or 10-year framework, and none of us can see clearly into the distant future. Given that, it is okay to have lots of plans about lots of things. Do not sweat condensing everything into a single plan. Finally, new information emerges every day, and, as that information emerges, we learn more and become less uncertain. So, do not rush to make decisions too quickly. In fact, waiting can provide the option to make better decisions later.
So, what should we think of “strategic foresight” and the value it adds for us as we manage the college and for our students as they prepare for their careers? As a new idea, I do not see much that others have not said before. But, as a mental discipline and a better way of thinking, it can add great value to how we manage and build for the future. For example, we are always vigilant and open to new possibilities, even when those possibilities are contrary to our favorite practices and programs. We strive to build organizational flexibility and adaptability, knowing that things can change quickly and in new and unexpected ways. We try to leave our options open and to cultivate patience in our decision making. Finally, we do all of this by learning to stay focused on a few important things, sometimes to the exclusion of the latest, the shiniest, or the most popular things. For us, at the Parker College, that means providing the sort of quality education that will prepare students for quality careers, both today and into the future.
SIA Holds Spring 2024 Stock Pitch Saturday
by Axel Grossmann
A big shoutout and thank you to the 25 members of the Southern Investment Association (SIA) at Parker College of Business-Georgia Southern University, who demonstrated a tremendous dedication toward their twelve presentations and thoughtful deliberation during Saturday’s (April 13) 9-hour stock pitch Saturday. A special thank you to Jacob Lord, SIA president, for leading Saturday’s event.
I also want to thank our graduating officers Cameron Naulta (Executive VP), Hunter Jones (VP Investment Strategy), and Anna Hewitt (VP Recruitment) for their commitment and hard work over the past semesters. Additionally, I want to thank our graduating members Nicholas Milcarek, Tate Bielenberg, and Zachary Roberts for their devotion to the SIA. You will be greatly missed!
Congratulations to Bent Berger for receiving this semester’s Ashcroft Scholarship for his extraordinary service to the group.
I want to thank Nathan Ashcroft (ACCT, 2017; MAcc, 2018) and Joel Varghese (FIN, 2021) who once again spent their Saturday with the group. Their tireless support and investment into the professional development of our students is highly appreciated. Finally, a big thank you to John Hatem, Ph.D., professor of finance, for all he does for the students and the SIA. I am honored to work with him and to learn from him every day.
I wish I had a bigger word than “Thank You” to express how grateful I am to everyone who makes this day possible!
Alumna in the Spotlight: Hannah Schmidt
Hannah Schmidt (LIT, 2020; MBA, 2023) began her career at Gulfstream as a co-op experience in 2018. Once she had obtained her undergraduate degree, she transitioned to a full-time position as a material planner in January 2021. After two years with the material planning group, Hannah moved into her current position as a master production scheduler. In this role, she is responsible for the G400, G500, and G600 wing production lines from start to finish. In short, Hannah meshes dates and machines to enable the airplane wings to be built in a timely manner so that the overall production of each plane meets its deadline. Since the wing manufacturing line has many different components, Hannah says no two days are the same. Though she likes to say she schedules machines and not people, Hannah admits she loves the people with whom she works and the level of collaboration they must share to be successful as they constantly try to determine the best ways to adapt to new manufacturing practices while being as lean as possible.
Hannah’s career has had its challenges, however. Beginning her career during the COVID-19 pandemic proved especially difficult. Learning to do her job while working mostly remotely and being unable to communicate with her team members helped Hannah to find new and creative ways to maintain contact with people. At the same time, these experiences helped her to realize just how lucky she was to have found full-time employment. Another challenge involved Hannah’s decision to return to school to earn her MBA. Although completing her MBA while working full-time is Hannah’s greatest accomplishment to date, spending her days working full-time and her nights doing homework and coursework was not easy. Despite the difficulties, she is thankful for the experience as it taught her to prioritize all 24 hours of each day.
Hannah credits the Parker College with where her career is today. Parker College and the Department of Logistics and Supply Chain Management provided her with many hands-on learning opportunities Hannah does not think any other program could have offered. She states that her logistics coursework gave her the solid foundation that allows her to tackle anything that occurs in the operations manufacturing sector. Hannah fondly recalls touring the Georgia Ports in Savannah, working as a co-op at Gulfstream, and participating in an Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) project with companies in the Savannah area as part of her logistics education. One of her favorite classes was the capstone logistics course taught by Marc Scott, Ph.D., former assistant professor of logistics and supply chain management. Hannah recalls that the final exam involved conducting a technical logistics interview with the professor. She acknowledges that this experience prepared her for the interviews she had in her senior year. Other great memories from Hannah’s time at Georgia Southern include participating in Greek life as a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma and working as a student athlete tutor. Her favorite memory, though, is of rushing the field with her friends at Paulson Stadium after the Eagles defeated App State in 2018.
Outside of work, Hannah likes spending time with her family and friends. She loves visiting new places but also loves returning to Statesboro in the fall to attend Eagles’ football games. In addition, Hannah enjoys being a part of the Parker College Young Alumni Board. She is also very fond of attending concerts and is looking forward to attending the inaugural GATA Jam headlined by Cole Swindell on April 20.
In the future, Hannah hopes to continue working at Gulfstream. She finds working in the aerospace and manufacturing industries very rewarding and has learned to call Savannah her home. Hannah’s highest goal is to continue living a happy and healthy life.
Finally, Hannah would like to advise current students to always pay attention to their emails. She admits that, while a student, she frequently deleted emails from career services without opening them. Fortunately, Hannah stumbled upon one with the co-op opportunity she ultimately completed with Gulfstream. Hannah knows that, had she deleted that email, she would not be where she is today.
