Beedie School of Business News

The following was originally published in the Burnaby Now newspaper on January 27, 2012.

BY JANAYA FULLER-EVANS, BURNABY NOW

The Eastman Kodak company filed for Chapter 11 reorganization last week, but the company says the Burnaby division will not be affected.

“The Chapter 11 filing directly impacted only our U.S. operations and subsidiaries,” Christopher Veronda, Kodak’s manager of corporate communications, wrote in an email to the NOW.

The Kodak Graphic Communications Group, located at 4225 Kincaid St., will remain focused on digital business for commercial businesses in the areas of graphics, enterprise services and solutions, and digital and functional printing, he added.

Veronda also pointed out that the reorganization isn’t the end for the company.

“A Chapter 11 reorganization allows a company to restructure operations to emerge as a profitable, sustainable enterprise,” he wrote.

Ed Bukszar, an associate professor at Simon Fraser University, agreed that the reorganization could have a positive outcome overall.

“With a tighter focus on a smaller market, I think they have a chance of turning it around,” he said.

Bukszar has lectured on the topic of Kodak’s business strategy for a decade.

“They had kind of a monopoly for a while,” Bukszar said. “They competed in photography and dominated the (film and print segments of the) industry for years.”

But by the mid-’90s, it became clear that digital images were going to become a significant threat to Kodak in the future and would eventually replace existing film-based technologies, he said.

“It was kind of one of these slowmoving accidents that you can watch for a really long time because each year, the digital technologies were going to get better and better and better.”

Kodak was always able to get by on the quality of its chemically based technology, Bukszar pointed out, something that may have contributed to the company’s inability to transition well enough, because the company never had to rely solely on its digital technology.

The company invested to “force migration to digital imaging,” he said, but it was a difficult process.

There are still many difficulties the company could face – the reorganization will require cost cutting, something that is a challenge for Kodak as it has a relatively high cost structure, Bukszar explained.

“It’s tough for an innovator to cut costs,” he said. “They’re not thinking about how to cut costs, they’re thinking about how to create the next big thing.”

The company could lose some top people as opportunities for advancement dry up, with Kodak competing in low-growth printing industries, he added.

But if the company focuses on providing high-quality print and publishing technologies, things could eventually turn around for Kodak, Bukszar said.

The Burnaby division is a good example of where the company has done this, he added.

“There’s a tremendous amount of technological sophistication in that company,” he said.

For now, the company will likely work quietly on developing strategies to focus on the print and publishing markets, and regain customer and supplier confidence, according to Bukszar.

Kodak could also sell parts of the company or its entire patent portfolio for funding to move forward, he added.

The company has closed 13 manufacturing plants, 130 processing labs, and reduced its workforce by 47,000 since 2003, according to a press release from the company.

The company received a $950 million line of credit for the next 18 months from Citygroup, to keep the company going during the reorganization, the release stated, and plans to complete the restructuring in 2013.

See the full article at Burnaby Now at: http://www.burnabynow.com/business/Kodak+city+exempt+from+bankruptcy/6060430/story.html

Tags: Burnaby, Burnaby Now, Ed Bukszar, Kodak, reorganization, Simon Fraser University

Basketball fans in Cleveland may disagree, but two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Lebron James’ decision to play with a higher-profile Miami Heat team and all-star teammates shows sound marketing and career-management acumen, according to newly-published business school research focused on the evolution and importance of star status for today’s professional athletes. In order to maximize their earnings and endorsements, today’s celebrity athletes — from James to David Beckham to Peyton Manning — need to be mindful of the evolution of their star status.

So what makes a star shine even brighter in the world of pro sports? It’s a combination of not only personal performances and team records, but also includes the markets that athletes play in and the star calibre of the athletes they compete with.

The study, “Investigating the evolution of star status in professional team sports,” describes the rise and fall of celebrated athletes using data from the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1987 to 2008. Published in the International Journal of Research in Marketing, it was authored by professors Yupin Yang of the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver and Mengze Shi from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. To measure star status, they measured the number and share of votes received by pro basketball players for the annual NBA all-star game.

It turns out that the careers of star athletes have a natural life cycle. In the early years, individual performance is more important – but as time passes, winning a team championship becomes more imperative than personal statistics or accolades.

The results of the research, which arguably vindicate Lebron James for managing his career so deliberately, show that stars should play for a winning team – which not only helps an athlete rise up to being a star, but also extends a star athlete’s playing career. Also in James’ favour, Profs. Yang and Shi maintain that star teammates can help each other. An athlete’s popularity is strongly associated with the popularity of teammates, and explains some blockbuster deals in recent years that have brought stars together to form star teams.

There is risk associated with this kind of career movement, as the researchers point out: Stars who move to star-laden teams could be eclipsed by more popular star teammates and eventually lose star status. Depending on his team’s performances in the coming years, this could apply to James’ teammate Chris Bosh, who was already a star in his own right when he left the Toronto Raptors to join the star-studded Miami Heat.

The researchers’ results can be useful to managers of professional sports teams in managing their star athletes. According to the researchers, “if a team intends to develop a new star, the team should build up the player’s individual performance statistics by providing him with more support and playing time.”

From the perspective of sports franchise managers, teams may leverage their assets such as a large fan base, current star players and a winning record in attracting or retaining a star player.

Finally, their results have implications for companies such as Adidas and Nike, who employ star athletes as endorsers of their brands. “By knowing the evolution patterns of athletes and the impacts of surrounding factors, corporate brands can make better informed decisions regarding which athlete to sign and what endorsement contracts to offer.”

Surprisingly, despite the prevalence of star athletes and the enormous economic value of these celebrity brands in the marketplace, such marketing-focused empirical research on star athletes to date has been scarce.

Tags: branding, David Beckham, Journal of Research in Marketing, Lebron James, Marketing, Mengze Shi, NBA, Peyton Manning, Yupin Yang

Surrey, B.C. (January 12, 2012) – Simon Fraser University is launching entrepreneurship@SFU, a new high-tech entrepreneurship initiative, thanks to a $210,000 donation from Dr. Ken Spencer and a matching contribution of $210,000 from the Province of British Columbia through the B.C. Innovation Council (BCIC).

The new Ken Spencer Entrepreneur Incubator, a component of the entrepreneurship@SFU initiative in partnership with BCIC, is a competitive academic pathway for third- and fourth-year business and applied sciences students that provides the skills, mentorship and resources to build upon innovative ideas and develop successful new ventures.

“SFU’s applied science students have a great track record of innovative work, and through the university’s partnership with BCIC and Ken Spencer, graduates will be able to turn their ideas into viable high-tech businesses,” said Moira Stilwell, Parliamentary Secretary for Industry, Research and Innovation. “Supporting a vibrant technology sector is part of our BC Jobs Plan – and the students who start their own companies through entrepreneurship@SFU will contribute to the sector’s growth and success.”

SFU students have always been innovative product designers, having developed technologies such as diagnostic tools to aid in tumor detection, improved helmet safety using new designs and smart materials and fuel-efficient smart tires, to name a few. The Ken Spencer Entrepreneur Incubator will help students turn ideas like these into companies.

Students will be expected to produce a business plan, design and prototype their product/system, complete steps to launch a successful business and obtain a lead customer. They will also take courses in business, engineering, entrepreneurship, innovation and commercialization and will have access to a mentorship from industry experts, a scholarship award and a new Product Design Studio, established in partnership with BCIC.

The Product Design Studio is a work and meeting space outfitted with design and prototyping equipment including computer and A/V facilities, advanced design software, a rapid prototyping machine and other equipment to help students launch new ventures.

The Ken Spencer Entrepreneur Incubator will contribute to B.C.’s economic development by preparing students to create, build and lead companies, and thereby produce jobs, revenue and intellectual capital. SFU will begin with a pilot initiative in 2012, and moving forward, will accept 20-25 students each year for seven years with the goal of producing six potential companies or products annually.

“As an alumnus of the Beedie School and an entrepreneurial trailblazer in British Columbia’s technology sector, Ken Spencer embodies the values of our institution,” said Daniel Shapiro, Dean of SFU’s Beedie School of Business. “The Ken Spencer Entrepreneur Incubator says much about his commitment, and ours, to fostering a dynamic and robust learning environment for aspiring technology entrepreneurs in this province.”

“entrepreneurship@SFU offers students a unique learning experience that will connect them with real-world applications and provide skills for long-term career success,” said Nimal Rajapakse, Dean of the Faculty of Applied Sciences. “By combining the educational power of the faculties of Applied Sciences and Business, we are committed to further strengthening SFU’s leadership position in technology innovation and entrepreneurship.”

For many years, Ken Spencer has promoted the entrepreneurial spirit at SFU: “I am pleased to continue to be able to work with SFU and BCIC to engage students at an earlier stage in their education to ensure they have the resources and mentorship needed to become entrepreneurial in their thinking and strong contributors to B.C.’s high technology sector upon graduation.”

entrepreneurship@SFU is now one of five entrepreneurship@ programs developed by BCIC to launch and grow sustainable technology companies in the province. To learn more about the Ken Spencer Entrepreneur Incubator and entrepreneurship@SFU, visit website http://entrepreneurship.sfu.ca/.

-30-

About Simon Fraser University

Ranked by respected national surveys as one of Canada’s top three comprehensive universities for almost 20 years, Simon Fraser University is named after a famous explorer and known for its pioneering spirit. Spanning many disciplines in eight faculties, SFU offers more than 100 undergraduate major and joint major programs and more than 45 graduate offerings. Mentored by faculty acclaimed for their research and teaching abilities and coached by dedicated advisors and employers in our work integrated learning program, our more than 100,000 graduates enjoy limitless career opportunities. For more information, visit www.sfu.ca.

About BCIC

BCIC (British Columbia Innovation Council) develops entrepreneurial talent and commercializes technology. BCIC focuses on competitively positioning British Columbia in today’s global knowledge economy in order to provide significant employment opportunities and a high standard of living for British Columbians. BCIC is a Crown Agency of the Province of British Columbia. For more information about BCIC, visit www.bcic.ca or www.twitter.com/bcic.

About Ken Spencer

Ken Spencer has a legacy of supporting entrepreneurs in BC. He is the retired CEO and co-founder of Creo Products. Founded in 1983 with two people, Creo grew from a startup to over 4,500 employees in British Columbia, United States, Europe and Israel. It was BC’s largest high technology company with sales of almost $1 billion. In 2005, Creo was sold to Kodak.

For more information about the Ken Spencer Entrepreneur Incubator, an entrepreneurship@SFU initiative, please contact:

Karen Lee
Communications Officer
Faculty of Applied Sciences
Simon Fraser University
Tel.: 778-782-8923
Email: k_lee@sfu.ca

Derek Moscato
Marketing Director
Beedie School of Business
Simon Fraser University
Tel.: 778-782-5038
Email: derek_moscato@sfu.ca

Lindsay Thom
Media Manager
BCIC
Direct: 604-602-5249
Email: lthom@bcic.ca

Tags: BCIC, entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship@SFU, innovation, Ken Spencer, technology

Tags: Anita M. McGahan, CMA Centre, CMA Centre for Strategic Change, CMA Centre for Strategic Change and Performance Measurement, entrepreneur, healthcare, innovation, networking, Segal Graduate School, technology

The following article was published by The Economist on January 3, 2012 as part of their ongoing coverage of global business education.

WILL Brazil become a new source of inspiration for Western business schools? For the past fifteen years, they have mainly looked east. New business schools grew up in such fast-growing countries as China and Singapore, leading to a stream of student and faculty exchanges between Western and Eastern campuses.

But a growing number of business schools are now looking south, with Brazil attracting most interest. The University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business recently introduced a Brazilian residency as part of its Global Executive MBA (GEMBA). Students will go to São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro where they will spend two weeks attending classes, visiting local firms and learning about the region’s business environment. And Canada’s Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University has joined forces with São Paulo’s FIA Business School, Mexico City’s ITAM and Nashville’s Vanderbilt University to develop what officials call an “Executive MBA programme for the Americas”.

The flurry of activity may not come as a surprise. Last year Brazil overtook Britain to become the world’s sixth-biggest economy, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research. Yet despite the country’s recent success and its wealth of natural resources, the story of the Brazilian economy in the second half of the twentieth century was one of underachievement. The longstanding joke is that Brazil is a country of the future—and always will be. Beyond political instability, observers point to decades of corporate mismanagement and a lack of strategies to maintain growth.

But the country is the destination of choice for multinationals looking for a foothold in Latin America. It also boasts a sophisticated technology sector, enough oil, crops and breweries to be self-sufficient. And it has been chosen to host the world’s two biggest sporting events in the next four years: the World Cup and the Olympic games. Add to that a growing middle class, and the economy should have a promising future.

Will foreign business schools be able to influence the country’s executives, given Brazil’s historic tendency to be inward-looking and resistant to outside ideas? For it to keep growing, managers need to change their mindset, says Peter Rodriguez, senior associate dean at the Darden School of Business. And this is happening, he explains, as Brazil’s economy is moving away from family-based firms towards more professionally managed companies. Increasingly, it is no longer lineage, social connections and good fortune that will get you ahead.

Local firms are also keen to use business education to learn from recent failures in rich countries, notes Cesar Beltran, IESE Business School’s Brazil director. “In this time of rapid growth they don’t want to lose sight of the long-term picture for the sake of short term gain,” he says. Mr Beltra also argues that more and more Brazilian companies want their managers to think globally.

Marina Heck, of the OneMBA program at Brazil’s FGV Business School, sees this as part of a wider trend of companies investing more in their management talent. In Brazil the war for talent is still raging. As a result, almost 90% of the students enrolled in the OneMBA programme are funded by their companies (in America and Europe the share is about a third). And whereas in rich countries the number of those who want to get an MBA has fallen in the past two years, applications to the OneMBA programme at FGV have doubled over the same period.

For students coming from outside the country, Brazil offers lessons that stand apart from those that can be learned in other BRIC nations, such as India and China. Darden GEMBA students, for example, get the opportunity to study Rio’s Carnival—and understand how such a major international event can rise out of the poverty-stricken favelas.

Though the world’s biggest popular gathering may look like a spontaneous street party, it is also the result of months of intense practice, meticulous choreography and people management on a massive scale. Such “Samba management”, a combination of the fun and formal, may be a model for the world.

See the full article at The Economist at: http://www.economist.com/whichmba/samba-management

Tags: Americas MBA, Brazil, Executive MBA programme for the Americas, FIA Business School, ITAM, Mexico, The Economist, USA, Vanderbilt University

Ian McCarthy, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Technology & Operations Management at SFU’s Beedie School of Business, has been selected to the “50 Business Professors You Should Follow on Twitter” list recently assembled by OnlineMBA, a media outlet focused on business education in North America and internationally.

The Twitter list acknowledges business academics who have taken advantage of social media to exchange ideas with students and colleagues, disseminate research and ideas, engage with industry, and leverage social media for the classroom.

McCarthy, who tweets under the handle @toffeemen68, focuses on a wide range of business topics including technology, innovation, operations and management education. McCarthy joins nine other professors on the list’s International section.

It’s not his only social media honour in recent times. In November, the management journal Business Horizons and Elsevier awarded McCarthy and co-authors Jan Kietzmann, Kristopher Hermkens and Bruno Slivestre with its Best Article Award for 2011.

The Beedie School team earned the distinction for their paper entitled Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media. The article’s authors argue that managers need to understand the different functionalities behind different social media platforms before they can effectively use and respond to the communication vehicle.

McCarthy is part of a growing contingent of academics at the Beedie School of Business using social media to engage with industry, students, alumni globally. Beedie School of Business Dean Daniel Shapiro — @sfubeediedean – was the first business school dean in Canada to use the social medium, and continues to use Twitter to exchange ideas and research on business strategy, economics, globalization, as well as news from the Beedie School.

To follow Ian McCarthy on Twitter, visit: http://www.twitter.com/Toffeemen68

To see OnlineMBA’s full list of must-follow business professors on Twitter, visit: http://www.onlinemba.com/blog/50-business-professors-you-should-follow-on-twitter/

Tags: Ian McCarthy, OnlineMBA, social media, Twitter