COB Undergraduate Programs

An experimental pilot program in the College of Business gives professional role to undergraduate students

rudmehta — Thu, 22 Sep 2022 22:20:34 +0000

An experimental pilot program in the College of Business gives professional role to undergraduate students rudmehta Thu, 09/22/2022 - 18:20

This article was originally published on May 20, 2019.

Typically, consultancies are roles filled by people at the top of their career climb. But a new College of Business class flipped the ladder in a experimental pilot program — with undergraduate students advising an internationally recognized retailer before even landing their first post-college jobs.

Operations Management Professor Charu Chandra said it’s a bit of a nontraditional approach, but it’s a way to give both students and industry what they want.

“I’ve spoken with employers who share they want to hire students who work on problems from a multi-faceted approach and they want to know that students can take initiative to find solutions. And we have students wanting real world experience. This accomplishes both and gives cost-free potential solutions to an industry partner.”

Chandra has successfully worked with industry partners for years with his data analytics graduate students who’ve taken on problem-solving projects for DTE, Ford Motor Co. and more. And Chandra believes with mentoring and the right undergraduate team, the experiential learning model can be applied for college seniors.

“I know that we have strong undergraduate students who are ready, with guidance, to provide support for a real company concern,” says Chandra, who partnered with Gardner-White Furniture Co. — the International Home Furnishing Reps Assoc. 2018 Retailer of the Year — for the semester-long class.

Chandra says he chose the nine students for the business administration capstone-style course just like he assembles his graduate course teams — through faculty recommendations, one-on-one interviews and areas of interest. He wants to make sure he has a well-rounded group of students with different perspectives and talents.

Together, the class looks at a predetermined concern — for example, Gardner-White wanted to better understand failed furniture delivery attempts — and presents findings to the client at the end of the 16 weeks.

The results? Gardner-White executives called the students’ work as thorough as a professional consulting company they had hired.

“We brought on an outside marketing partner earlier in the year that professionally conducted the exact same study for our company these students did. It took the same amount of time and they came back with near identical feedback,” says Gardner-White Distribution Center Vice President Jon Doolen. “In addition, the students gave suggestions to us weekly, some of which we implemented in our social marketing strategy right away. I applaud the students for what they’ve accomplished.”

To Imani Tarpeh, who participated in the class and recently graduated from ��-Dearborn, Doolen’s words affirmed the research and data crunching she did. Her in-store visits to gain a customer’s perspective. The data deep dive into customer satisfaction surveys. The ride-alongs with furniture delivery drivers to better understand the logistics and looking at their DispatchTrack record. The experience obtained from working with and presenting to business executives.

“Mr. Doolen’’s positive acknowledgement of our work was affirmation that we accomplished what we set out to do,” says Tarpeh, studied information technology management. “This course allowed me to use the lessons I’ve had in my other classes and pull my business education together to provide potential solutions to an actual challenge a company has. That was very satisfying.”

Tarpeh said her classmates had a variety of majors, including supply chain management, finance, marketing and human resource management. And working with them on the shared goals helped better prepare her for life after graduation.

“This project gave me experience in leading and communicating with people who did things a little differently than I do. In my other classes, I was mostly with people in the same major. When you get your first job, your team will have different work styles, interests and knowledge. You need to know how to work well together,” says Tarpeh, who now works as a website user-experience analyst at U-M.

She also appreciates Gardner-White executives extending professional courtesy to the team.

“They were truly gracious with their time and invested in what we were doing,” she says. “Working with Gardner-White gave us experience on how to work with high-level professionals — do your research, communicate clearly, have potential solutions ready to roadblocks and be ready to learn. It gave me increased confidence as I was getting ready to graduate.”

With the trial run considered a win-win for industry and students, Chandra said he’s seeking business partners to collaborate with future course sessions offered to senior-level students in the fall and winter semesters.

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Using an experiential learning model, a new business administration course partners students and industry to deliver a win-win.

Imani Tarpeh presents her business research findings to Gardner-White Furniture executives.

How a new campus lab supports students from the classroom to the boardroom

tinahu — Wed, 23 Feb 2022 19:53:59 +0000

How a new campus lab supports students from the classroom to the boardroom tinahu Wed, 02/23/2022 - 14:53

Employers need effective communicators — that’s the bottom line. So the College of Business recently opened a business communication lab to assist students in strengthening their business communication skills.

“Whether you are leading a team or working on a team, how you communicate is a reflection of your professional presence,” said College of Business faculty member Christine Fischer, a longtime business communication educator who teaches BA 330: Managerial Communication, among other courses. “Effective communication is a skill employers want their employees to have. At the end of the day, your communication skills will differentiate you in the business world.”

To help connect ��-Dearborn students with a dedicated business communication campus resource, a prominent Michigan alumnus’ family estate gifted $250,000 to establish the John H. and Patricia W. Mitchell Business Communication Lab. This gift was then matched with $250,000 from other gift funds in the College of Business to create a $500,000 endowment to support the lab.

Archive photo of Patricia and John Mitchell

The gift honors the legacy of Columbia Pictures Television Founder John H. Mitchell (A.B. ’39) and his wife Patricia Mitchell. John Mitchell was an entertainment industry executive who served as president of Columbia Pictures television division from 1968 to 1977. Under his leadership, he produced shows that include The Flintstones and Bewitched. He also served three terms as president of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

“The Patricia W. Mitchell Trust supports the College of Business’ vision of evolving our business writing curriculum into a comprehensive business communication lab,” said Raju Balakrishnan, dean of the College of Business. “Business communication plays a vital role in who succeeds. Our students will benefit because of John H. and Patricia W. Mitchell’s generosity — both now with this enhanced educational experience and into the future.”

Fischer, who is the director of the John H. and Patricia W. Mitchell Business Communication Lab, previously worked at U-M’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business, meticulously researched and developed lab plans for nearly two years. She surveyed campus faculty and students, and looked at prominent business schools — like Ross, University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School and others — to see what they offered when it came to business communication development. She then tailored offerings to meet Dearborn Wolverine needs.

Student services include providing feedback on written assignments, evaluating slide presentations, giving presentation rehearsal assistance, and more. Faculty resources in development include a business communications writing module and a communications best practices presentation that they can share with students.

Director Christine Fischer

She said the communication lab was a priority because research shows there is a widespread disconnect between how students view their written and oral skills versus how employers view those skills. For example, according to a National Association of Colleges and Employers survey, nearly 80% of students believed they were competent in oral and written communication, while only 42% of employers indicated that students were successful in those areas.

The Mitchell Business Communication Lab offers online and in-person appointments where communication consultants — who are business professionals or high-achieving COB students — work one-on-one with students in 30-minute sessions. In-person appointments take place in Fairlane Center South room 152.

“Memos, emails and reports are different from a research paper. People get a lot of messages each day and we want our students to get their point across clearly in their business deliverables,” Fischer said. “In the business world, clear concise communication saves time and builds goodwill because time is money.”

If you’d like to learn more about the John H. and Patricia W. Mitchell Business Communication Lab, please reach out to Fischer at chrisfis@umich.edu.

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Wed, 02/23/2022 - 19:53

The College of Business John H. and Patricia W. Mitchell Business Communication Lab supports ��-Dearborn business students by providing feedback on written assignments, evaluating slide presentations, giving presentation rehearsal assistance and more.

Illustration showing the variety of services available at the College of Business' new John H. and Patricia W. Mitchell Business Communication Lab. Graphic by Violet Dashi

The Love Connection

tinahu — Wed, 09 Feb 2022 15:45:04 +0000

The Love Connection tinahu Wed, 02/09/2022 - 10:45

I love it. I love it not. Wait…can we really feel love for a thing? And, if we can, what does that say about us?

College of Business Marketing Professor Aaron Ahuvia has been studying questions related to consumer-based love connections for decades. To find answers, he’s consistently researched the psychology of how brands, money and spending influence our happiness — it’s made him a “Brand Love” pioneer who earned the first Consumer Brand Relationship Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award and he’s internationally known as a leading expert on brand love.

“I was hardly the first person to notice that people love things. But to my good fortune, I was the first person to collect scientific data specifically on this kind of love. It has remained a research interest of mine for more than 30 years.”

Ahuvia’s findings have been featured in The New York Times and on National Public Radio. When Oprah had a talk show, Ahuvia was on it. And now he’s got a book coming out that dives into this hot topic, The Things We Love: How Our Passions Connect Us and Make Us Who We Are. (Little, Brown and Company, 2022)

Ahuvia works his research into his ��-Dearborn marketing classrooms to help students better understand consumerism today. When Ahuvia isn’t on campus, he’s working with Fortune 500 clients — like Google, L'Oreal and Samsung — to look at brand impact and effectiveness.

And he says that love does have something to do with it.

“There is scientific evidence that our love for things is really love,” he said. “But it’s important to note that this doesn’t mean that our love for things is the same as our love for people. Love comes in many forms.” This scientific evidence includes noticing that oxytocin — the brain hormone that’s linked with triggering feelings of love and protection — played a role in bonding people to their favorite brands.

In honor of the Valentine’s Day holiday, we asked him what he's learned when it comes to love and a few of our favorite things.

Our love continues to evolve.

Aaron Ahuvia: “First I’ll share a bit of science: The brain’s neocortex is essential for love and many other aspects of social relationships. Our neocortex has evolved to become very large; humans have the largest brain relative to body size of any animal due to it. But this isn’t a physical advantage. Our brains use up to 10 times as many calories per unit of mass than our skeletal muscle. That means even though our brain only makes up 2% of our body weight, it uses up 20% of our daily calories. So why would we evolve to have a larger brain?

One reason is because of the role that love plays in our lives. In all sorts of animal species, the main purpose of a larger brain is to allow for more complex and cooperative relationships between parents. Species that mate monogamously and parent their offspring have significantly larger brains than species that don’t.

In humans, this love bond expanded — along with the size of our neocortex — to form bonds in people outside of our immediate family. This allowed us to have even more powerful social organization based on a shared willingness to make sacrifices for other people. So it went beyond parental, romantic and familial love and expanded into the type of platonic love we feel for friends or neighbors.

Objects do not fall into these person-to-person categories of love — our love for people is different than our love for things — but there is definitely a bond occurring. The Industrial Revolution plays a role in love expanding to things. The access to more items gave opportunities for people to make associations with them. But the Industrial Revolution went far beyond simply inundating us with stuff. It also led to a profound cultural change: It increased individualism. As our Western society became richer, people got more choice over how they wanted to define their identity. So it became more common for objects to become a reflection of who you are and create an extension of self. That connection to a person’s identity plays a big role in why a brand or item rises to love status.”

The things we love are often people in disguise.

Ahuvia: “We are exposed to many things every day. Sure, there are a lot of things we like — but the items that evoke a stronger response are a chosen few. Of course, the product needs to be useful to you on some level and be a good item for you to connect with it. But there is an added layer going on with the things we love — the product is often representative of a person or people.

Typically, with everyday objects, we have person-thing interactions. But the things we love are often person-thing-person. For example, a student might love U-M because of the way it connects her to her friends. In that case, the person-thing-person would be student-campus-friends.

However, there is a downside to this: Your love for the product rises and falls depending how you feel about the person or people. For example, if you are upset with your favorite quarterback, you might be angry at your jersey and not wear it.”

Most things are superficial — but loved objects are not.

Ahuvia: “I have been doing research studies about love for decades — starting with personal dating ads in the 1980s before moving over to the market research side. Just like people, most brands aren’t likely to appeal to everyone. But there will be a few people who absolutely love them.

In one survey of 720 people, we asked which brands they loved. Participants named thousands of brands. We found that for every brand loved by over 100 people, there were hundreds loved by just one person. So there really is something for everybody.

Advertisers spend a lot of money trying to get us to care about their products. They collectively spent $724 billion in 2017. That’s a lot of money to explore bonds that often happen in unpredictable ways. So what do we know? As a researcher, I’ve learned that brands need to go beyond the superficial. It’s just like how when we’re single we’re attracted to good-looking people, but to fall in love there needs to be something more — like having a match to our values or being a partner to reach goals with — for that person to become a ‘keeper.’

There’s also that feeling of ‘rightness’ about an object that makes us feel that it is authentically part of who we are, like it has taken a part of our identity and made it visible. For a musician, that might be a family heirloom violin. Or, for a marathon runner, a certain type of shoe in your favorite color. With all the products available in the world, you connected with the right one. It’s kind of how we view the elusive Mr. Right.

The way companies get there is to stay true to who they are and know that there is someone out there, even right now, who is madly in love with their product. We can’t all be the Apples or Samsungs of the world — and I believe they are widely loved because of the frequency people interact with their products and see their phones as extensions of themselves — but your business can still be important and make a difference.”

Whether you are marketing a product or yourself, be authentic.

Ahuvia: “Back when I was a Ph.D. student, I had a part-time job helping people create attractive profiles for dating services. Mom was right. Just be yourself. If you falsely advertise yourself, you’ll lose trust, which is essential when it comes to building relationships that lead to love. Also: avoid cliches. No one cares if you enjoy walks on the beach. Instead talk about your values, expectations and what you offer. Bonds are created when connecting with someone over what you find important in life — and that’s true when it comes to both people and things.”

If you’re a member of the media and would like to interview Professor Aaron Ahuvia about the love of things, please drop us a line at ��Dearborn-News@umich.edu.

Ahuvia’s book, The Things We Love: How Our Passions Connect Us and Make Us Who We Are, will be out in July. It’s a revealing investigation of the emotional relationships people have with things—drawing on cutting-edge findings from the fields of psychology, neuroscience and marketing.

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In honor of Valentine’s Day, Marketing Professor Aaron Ahuvia explains what makes a brand a good match, why people feel love for things and the science that's behind it.

College of Business has top programs in the state, nation

stuxbury — Thu, 16 Jan 2020 15:03:50 +0000

College of Business has top programs in the state, nation stuxbury Thu, 01/16/2020 - 10:03

College of Business students outside of Fairlane Center South

Several ranking and news organizations have listed ��-Dearborn’s College of Business among the best in the country.

“For more than a decade we have delivered innovative curricula and experiential opportunities to prepare students for the ever-changing marketplace,” says COB Dean Raju Balakrishnan. “These not only serve as a testament to the quality of our students, faculty and staff, but also to our mission of being a leading educational institution in Michigan.”

Lists from U.S. News & World Report, Poets&Quants and The Princeton Review have all recognized business programs on campus. The U.S. News and World Report online rankings — which list COB’s online MBA second in the state — were announced this week.

U.S. News & World Report, Online MBA

University of Michigan-Dearborn’s College of Business has one of the country’s top online MBA programs, according to recent rankings by U.S. News & World Report. The publication ranks COB’s online MBA program second in the state.

More than 200 students are currently enrolled in ��-Dearborn’s online MBA program, which is fully accredited by AACSB International and offers concentrations in finance and international business. Only 5-percent of business schools worldwide have earned AACSB accreditation.

U.S. News & World Report surveyed 335 online MBA programs this year and based its online graduate programs rankings on statistical data provided by the participating institutions and peer assessment. COB’s online MBA program was recognized in categories focused on student satisfaction and instructor responsiveness with admissions selectivity as its highest score. Also of note: COB’s program was ranked as a “Best Online Program for Veterans.”

“We take great pride in providing our students with highly-qualified faculty, and we enhance the student experience by surrounding them with other highly-motivated students,” Balakrishnan says. “We are also very proud to note that our program ranked among the country's best programs for veterans.”

Poets&Quants, Online MBA and Undergraduate Programs

��-Dearborn’s College of Business among the best in the nation, according to Poets&Quants, a leading online publication for business education news. P&Q took over the ranking process from Bloomberg Businessweek three years ago and is now the primary ranking source for business programs.

In the comprehensive assessment of online MBA programs for 2020, the publication ranked COB 19th in the U.S., two places higher than last year’s ranking, within a group of schools that included Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Southern California.

The undergraduate business program at ��-Dearborn has been ranked by P&Q among the highest tier of AACSB-accredited undergraduate business programs in the U.S. too. The program ranked 69th in the country, 16 places higher than last year in the list headed by Wharton and Ross.

The Princeton Review, Best Business School

The College of Business was named an outstanding business school, by The Princeton Review for the 11th consecutive year.

The Princeton Review’s business school profiles have sections on academics, student life, admissions information and graduates' employment data. The profiles also have five categories of ratings that The Princeton Review tallies based on institutional data it collected during the 2018-19 academic year and/or its on-campus MBA student survey. Rating categories are: Academic Experience, Admissions Selectivity, Career, Professors — Interesting, and Professors — Accessible.

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U.S. News & World Report, Poets&Quants and The Princeton Review have all recognized COB in their lists and rankings.

There’s more to COB student Michael Smith’s burgeoning sportswear line than just a large social media following

admin — Mon, 25 Feb 2019 14:27:12 +0000

There’s more to COB student Michael Smith’s burgeoning sportswear line than just a large social media following admin Mon, 02/25/2019 - 09:27

Michael Smith, TITAFit

When Michael Smith didn’t like the material or fit of his workout clothing, the ��-Dearborn men’s soccer player decided to create his own. And thanks to social media and a marketing mind, the College of Business senior’s sportswear business has grown substantially since he founded it during his freshman year.

Smith’s company, TITAFit, has nearly 19,000 followers on Instagram, which is where he does 90 percent of sales. More than 450 athletes globally serve as brand ambassadors, representing the brand online in exchange for discount merchandise and presale access. And Smith, a marketing major, takes hundreds of orders each week in between balancing studies and playing defense for the soccer team.

“I’ve always loved helping others reach their fitness goals through sharing advice or being a part of a team. I saw creating clothing as another way to help people achieve their fitness goals,” said Smith, who researches clothing materials through wear, looking for qualities like effectiveness in wicking sweat. He also designs for fit and look. The men’s soccer team recently ordered team stadium jackets that Smith’s company made.

His business has experienced a level of success early on — but he was nearly sidelined after receiving a cease and desist letter from a well-known sportswear and outerwear company earlier this year.

Smith started his company at age 18 with a tax ID and LLC, but didn’t look too much into trademarking the name. “My company’s original name contained the word ‘titanium,’ which this company had trademarked when used on clothing and sporting materials. I didn’t realize you could trademark an element name. But I learned quickly that you can.”

Smith — who attributes growth to a nearly 24/7 focus on maintaining his social media channels and having brand ambassadors post photos wearing his merchandise — said he needed to keep his profitable company in tact, but wanted to avoid a legal mess and conflict with a large-scale brand.

“I started this business by reaching out to everyone I knew through social media and personal connections. I grew this fitness community organically over the past few years and didn’t want to lose what I worked so hard to build.”

So what was Smith’s next step? Getting advice from COB faculty.

“Right after I received the letter, I went up to [Marketing Lecturer] Jeremy Sutton and we talked for a half hour after my digital marketing class. He spoke on trademark and patents during lecture the week before. The timing was incredible,” he said. “I still lost a couple nights of sleep over this, but I am grateful for his help. He gave me a contact in a trademark office and pointed me in the right direction.”

Smith successfully rebranded to TITAFit Co. in late January. He said TITA means “Team is Together Always,” which signifies the feeling of durability and strength that he was going for in the original company name.

“It ended up being a very smooth transition. I had the right people available to answer questions,” he said. “This experience has taught me the importance of trademarking — even if you think it is something that’s fair use. I appreciate getting that lesson now. This experience and the advice I’ve gotten from my professors will only help me grow even stronger as a business owner.”

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Mon, 02/25/2019 - 14:23

Smith, a senior marketing major, has the support of his professors and uses lessons learned in the classroom to help him grow TITAFit, the business he launched during his freshman year.

New Information Systems Security minor gives a business focus to data security

nlerma — Mon, 23 Oct 2017 15:06:30 +0000

New Information Systems Security minor gives a business focus to data security nlerma Mon, 10/23/2017 - 11:06

Information Systems Security minor

University of Michigan-Dearborn’s College of Business will offer a new Information Systems Security minor beginning this winter as a response to the growing digitization of business data.

The 15-credit minor may not have been essential to business five years ago, but it is today, said Information Systems Management Associate Professor Jun He.

“Although businesses have always known there’s a security risk when going digital, having a formal education on the subject is becoming more and more in demand. There have been some really dramatic incidents and people are more aware of the importance of security,” said He, citing data breaches at Target and EquiFax that affected millions of people.

He said everyone—from industry to students—asked for the College of Business to add a security-focused program. The Information Systems Management faculty worked together to create new courses and to devise a specific focus for the minor.

“There will be foundational knowledge on security technologies and discussion of many business cases to understand best practices for securing information,” he said.

“Looking at business cases, behavior of employees or poor management is just as important as the security feature itself. We’ll look at what behavior is proper and what behavior is vulnerable to attacks.”

Other program topics will include information systems management, social networking analysis, digital security management, and networking and collaborative computing.

He said the minor can apply beyond the business field too.

“We are living in a digital world—our medical and government records, our purchases, our communication,” he said. “Nearly all of our industries, to varying degrees, center around data. This program will help students learn how to best secure and protect data in our digitized environment.”

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��-Dearborn will begin offering the minor this winter.

COB graduate Bill Loesel invests in himself for his family's future

nlerma — Fri, 21 Jul 2017 18:33:29 +0000

COB graduate Bill Loesel invests in himself for his family's future nlerma Fri, 07/21/2017 - 14:33

William Loesel

Wearing his cap and gown, William (Bill) Loesel walked with his classmates down the Crisler Center aisle to his seat.

But even with everything going on around him—camera flashes, cheering and more than 1,000 fellow ��-Dearborn graduates—the 34-year-old was able to make eye contact with his 5-year-old daughter, Reagan, and wave.

That moment at April’s graduation ceremony let Loesel know that he had, against the odds, made it.

The phrases once used to describe his life—high school dropout, homeless, hard partier—no longer applied.

They were replaced with proud dad, college graduate and successful businessman.

“It all started with her,” said Loesel, talking about Reagan. “I knew if I continued on my path, I could have easily ended up dead or in jail. When I found out I was going to be a father, I realized my life needed to change. My kid deserved better than that.”

A cornerstone of his transformation was ��-Dearborn.

Always interested in entrepreneurship and business—as a child, he ran a profit-turning lemonade stand and sold Morley candy door-to-door to be his school’s No. 1 fundraiser—Loesel started researching undergraduate programs.

He said ��-Dearborn had what he was looking for: a strong business program, some online courses and supportive faculty with industry experience. It also came recommended by a longtime friend, Brandon Phillips, a former ��-Dearborn student and ��-Ann Arbor graduate.

“So many people didn’t think I was serious when I told them I was going to turn my life around. But when I told Brandon, he didn’t judge me. Instead, he said, ‘You can do this,’” said Loesel, who walked at the April ceremony but will complete his degree requirements in August. “He told me to aim high and to really challenge myself. So I did.”

Loesel, who’s taken a full course load each semester, now runs a small web-based vintage luxury watch business. He said advice from his College of Business classes helped him grow his business, which began as a hobby.

“I learned that I was being very American with the method I used to close deals, because I got right down to business. That doesn’t appeal to everyone, especially not international clients,” he said. “They want to know and understand you, and understand what you’re about; the business part comes second.”

Loesel said he now he engages in communication and building trust and relationships first.

“When my writing and communication improved, my business sales skyrocketed. I came here to become an international businessman, and I was able to accomplish that before I graduated,” he said. “I owe much of that to this university.”

Reflecting on his life then and now, Loesel said his transformation is almost unbelievable—even to him.

“If you would have told me five or six years ago that I’d graduate from a U-M school, I would have told you that you were nuts.” After a pause, he continued with a smile, “But here I am.”

And most importantly to Loesel, his daughter saw him succeed.

“Reagan knows her dad went to the ‘Go Blue!’ school. I’m now a part the University of Michigan. To be in that group, you have to earn it,” he said. “If I can accomplish this, anyone can. I can’t wait to see what is around the corner for me…for us.”

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Leaving his past behind, William Loesel kept focus on his family and his future to reach his graduation goal.