Elon Musk, the popular founder of Tesla and SpaceX, sent shockwaves through the business world when he criticized the “MBA-ization of America.” His point: Too many business executives focus on financials and meetings—taught to them by various masters of business administration (MBA) programs—rather than the products and services themselves.
Most of my readers are familiar with small towns in Iowa that have longstanding family-owned businesses, such as family eateries. Grandparents, parents, and children may own and work in these restaurants. They often have loyal employees that are “part of the family.” These owners may be unable to afford to pay their workers much more than $10 per hour, to say nothing of the proposed $15 per hour minimum wage.
After months of dreary experimentation in her basement, Dr. von Frankenstein, PhD, has concocted an effective antidote and vaccine for a deadly virus sweeping the United States. She files and receives a patent for her discovery.
There’s a new way marketers are getting young people to fork over their money. The new tactic revolves around consumers making four payments of one-quarter the retail price of an item (Amanda Mull, “Jeans Now, Pay Later,” Atlantic, January/February 2021, 18-20). This is just the old come-on--“Buy now, pay later”—in a new guise.
On Thursday, April 22 and Friday, April 23, 2021, Maddie Palmersheim (senior) and Grace Hartnett (senior) represented UNI at e-Fest hosted by the Schulze School of Entrepreneurship. e-Fest was an online competition that consisted of a pitch competition and the Schulze Innovation Challenge that awarded participants with over $215k in prize money.
By anyone’s estimation, the recently deceased Vernon Jordan was a “mover and shaker.” A commentary on his life referred to him as, “a civil-rights leader, Washington insider, Wise Man, power broker, deal maker, rainmaker, Wall Street banker and, as an interviewer put it a few years ago in the Financial Times, ‘the most connected man in America (Peggy Noonan, “America Loses a Wise Man,” Wall Street Journal, March 6-7, 2021, A13).’” Whew!
Ronnie Chen, assistant professor of finance, loves to bring practical experience into the classroom. When he saw an opportunity to the help the Iowa Arboretum, the Boone County nonprofit arboretum where he has volunteered for a couple of years, with its three-year budget, he seized it.
On Thursday, April 15 the College of Business Administration held their annual Leadership Awards Ceremony. At the event, the UNI JPEC awarded two graduating student entrepreneurs who have excelled at our center.
