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Week of May 25 –
30 Keeping you connected to
COBA & CIT! |
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1.
Batter
up!! Our lead story this week is not about CIT or COBA; it’s about Georgia Southern’s baseball Eagles who won the Southern Conference Tournament last weekend in Greenville, SC, and earned the automatic bid to join 63 other teams in the NCAA baseball version of “March Madness” called the 2009 Division 1 Baseball Championship. Our regular season record was 42-15. In a sense it seems maddening that our team was placed in a regional in Fullerton, California – we are one of the few teams in the tournament that has to make a cross-country trip. But the silver lining may be that we were seeded 2nd in our four-team double elimination regional. One way to look at our fate is that the NCAA believes we are somewhere between the 17th and 32nd best team in the 64-team tournament (since there are sixteen #1 seeds in the regionals). Regardless, this is a great reward for our baseball team to be back in the tournament representing Southern Conference baseball to a region of the country that is probably not familiar with Georgia Southern University. On a side note, this news item is somewhat related to COBA/CIT. Jake Simons has been keeping me updated all spring on the progress of the team and informed me that the following baseball Eagles are business (or pre-business) majors: A.J. Wirnsberger, third
base Phillip Porter,
outfield Brian Pierce,
shortstop Kevin Bowles, second
base Eric Phillips,
infielder Our first game is Friday night at 6:00 p.m. against the Gonzaga Bulldogs (of basketball fame). I will leave you with a short quiz: Where is Gonzaga University located? (answer at the bottom) Go Eagles!! |
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2.
Savannah Business Report &
Journal (columns written by COBA/CIT
faculty) In his cleverly titled column “Let’s Get Peachy on Entrepreneurship,” Luke Pittaway writes: “Georgia is the most
entrepreneurial state in the nation according to the Kauffman Index of
Entrepreneurial Activity published in April 2009…. While the overall activity rate for
the nation stayed the same there were shifts in the demographic and
geographic composition of new entrepreneurs across the country. Georgia in
2008 became the state with the highest entrepreneurial activity rate in
the country with 590 per 100,000 adults (followed closely by New
Mexico).” Luke points out that entrepreneurial activity is categorized in one of two ways: necessity-based, which means the entrepreneur was driven to create his/her business out of necessity, and opportunity-based, which suggests a different context for the start-up. The former “…might simply be caused by the recession, with possibly the rural areas of Georgia driving a growth in necessity based entrepreneurship.” Luke thinks the opportunity-based form of entrepreneurship is a healthier statement about the vitality of a region’s business climate and intellectual curiosity. He says both forms are thriving in Georgia, but he identifies a critical success factor that is missing in the state of Georgia. Click on the link below
to learn the missing ingredient: http://coba.georgiasouthern.edu/pdf
files/luke_pittaway_entrepreneurship.pdf ++++++++++++++++++ This week’s book review
was contributed by Dave Shepherd about a book titled “twitter power: How
to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time” by Joel Comm. (Note: the book’s title uses lower
case letters for the words “twitter power.”) Dave summarizes his take
on the book as follows: “I recommend this
book for anyone that is interested in using Twitter. The book provides an
excellent overview of Twitter along with clear step‐by-step instructions
for setting up your account and a 30‐day plan designed to
help you leverage your Twitter presence to build your brand and connect
with current and potential customers. In short, I found twitter power to
be a well‐written primer on
Twitter and how to use it to market yourself or your
firm.” To use Luke’s term from
above – That’s just peachy,
Dave, but what the heck is Twitter? He describes Twitter as a “…form
of social media,” which the author defines
as: “… a form of
publishing in which stories are swapped rather than published and the
exchange of content happens within a community, rather like a chat in a
restaurant.” That helps, but how do
you “do” Twitter? According
to Dave, you … “…send short, 140
characters or less, messages, called tweets, to other users that have
opted to ‘follow’ (you) …. This limitation actually leads to
the strength of Twitter as it allows these tweets to be viewed immediately
as SMS text messages on mobile devices.” Dave explains why and
how this might be useful, so if you are still interested in being the
first in your neighborhood to tweet your way to success, click on the link
below and Dave will tell you: http://coba.georgiasouthern.edu/pdf
files/dave_shepherd_tweeter.pdf ++++++++++++++ Historical
footnote: John Harlow, past
chair of the CIT Advisory Board, told me to get on the Twitter bandwagon
about a year-and-a-half go.
He predicted Twitter was going to be the next “big” thing in social
networking. Oooh, John, you
were so right! |
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3.
Savannah Morning
News Michael Reksulak’s
latest Free Enterprise column
in the Savannah Morning News is
titled “Taking the highway, not the high
road.” Michael commented on the
unusual spectacle of executives from American car companies supporting
President Obama’s “…announcement of new, tougher fuel-efficiency
standards” as being “…worthy of a cameo appearance on the World Series of
Poker.” He writes: “Obama also mentioned
in his announcement the national security implications of the nation's
reliance on oil as well as the resulting high levels of carbon emissions.
The new CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) standards are intended to
limit both. As this column had
pointed out two years ago, making CAFE regulations more stringent will
also lead to various unintended (and costly) side
effects.” What are some of those unintended side effects? Click on the link below to read Michael’s thoughts: http://savannahnow.com/node/726810 |
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4. Faculty in the news (thanks to Paul Floeckher for finding this one) Karl Manrodt is out-and-about again, this time in Chicago where he was invited to speak to the Flat Glass Logistics Council. In a May 28, 2009 article in the US Glass News Network titled “Council meets on logistics of
transporting flat glass,” Karl is paraphrased and quoted several times,
including this example: “Manrodt noted that
in this tough industry most carriers face extremely high turnover rates,
making it difficult to get well-trained individuals carrying glass, which
is particularly difficult to transport. ‘It's a very specialized product
that requires a lot more expertise [than one might think] from the
driver,’ he said. He added,
of the difficulty the drivers face, ‘Most fabricators have no idea.’” Read all about it at the link below: http://www.usgnn.com/newsTransportation20090528.htm ++++++++++++++++++ Well done, Karl! |
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5.
IMA meeting in Savannah
(this news item contributed by Tim
Cairney) “On May 15, COBA faculty were capably represented by Bob Jackson, Luke Pittaway, and Mike Wiggins at the Savannah Institute of Management Accountants' Spring Seminar. … Bob led the charge … and … explained the new Balance Sheet and Income Statement formats proposed by the SEC, the Financial Accounting Standards Board, and the International ASB. His talk was aptly subtitled "A New World Order" as he described the new Balance Sheet format that doesn't balance! (What? A balance sheet that doesn’t balance!!??) Luke followed Bob and
explained about entrepreneurial learning and how it can support
accountants. Mike provided an historic
perspective on ethics and laced his presentation with many excellent
examples.” ++++++++++++++ Thanks, Tim, for the eyewitness account of activities, and thank you, Bob, Luke, and Tim, for sharing your expertise with members of the Savannah IMA chapter. |
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6.
Student and alumni successes From time to time former students contact faculty about “life in the real world” to tell about their experiences. Below is an excerpt from a recent email – I thought you might enjoy it as I did! This was addressed to the faculty member by the former student: “I had been thinking about my sales career and how
it got started and it was all from that sales competition you invited me
to back in ’06. I have had a pretty good career in sales since
graduating, and I believe that a lot of that had to do with your
professional selling class and sharing your personal experiences. I
am forever grateful for that opportunity … because I would not have the
success I’ve had thus far. I’m back in GA now in Atlanta selling B2B
wireless applications to businesses and love it so far. I hope to
move into management within 2 years…. I’m always bragging on GSU and COBA
to my uppers and colleagues about the talent, great professors and
programs that we have in place. Compared to other schools, I think
COBA is really setting a realistic view of the business
world.” Yessss! Thank you, faculty, for the work you do preparing our students for their careers. Alumni: You could really “make their day” by sending a note to one of your former professors. I know they will appreciate it!! +++++++++++++++++++ Yours truly also receives lots of emails from students and alums, but I particularly liked this one that I received this week: “I talked to you at
the ribbon cutting for my new store, Po Jo's Country Store last June. I
was a non-traditional student that received my degree in marketing in
2000. My daughter is a rising senior at GSU and has received a senate
internship with Senator Johnny Isakson for this summer. … Catherine
is a Political Science major, and is planning on attending law school
after graduation. This was a highly competitive internship and my wife
Connie and I are very proud parents. I thought that you might enjoy
reading about the success of a second generation
Eagle.” Thanks for writing and making my day, Perry! In case you would like to read more about the “Eagles in D.C.” Congressional internship program, click on the link below: http://www.georgiasouthern.edu/strategic/index.php?s=215 +++++++++++++++++++ |
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7.
Welcome new subscribers § William S. (“Bill”) Anderson (’64 BS in business administration), who is retired in Jupiter, FL. § Jeffrey Lee Ball (’99 BBA in marketing), who is design and brand strategist for Jeff Ball Design in Atlanta. § Jay Hughes (’80 BA in religion and philosophy at Mercer), who is a contemporary – and former roommate of David Pitman – and is working in Atlanta. |
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Eagle
Executive Society Please consider joining – or renewing your membership in – COBA’s Eagle Executive Society. For only $50 a year your contribution will support our annual funding needs that are not being covered by state dollars. Corporate memberships are $250 per year. Click on the following link now and sign up online! Thank you. http://coba.georgiasouthern.edu/eagleexecutive/eexsmembership.htm |
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Gonzaga
University is located in Spokane, Washington, and its mission statement
refers to a “…distinguished tradition of humanistic,
Catholic, and Jesuit education.” |
