Mays Impacts

Mayur Kamat hasn’t let his age discourage him from publishing his research.

The 21-year-old graduate student in management information systems recently presented his paper on Digital Rights Management (DRM) at the Association for Information Technology Professionals Conference.

Kamat received his bachelor’s degree in computer engineering at Mumbai University in India. For his final project, he worked at Larsen and Toubro Infotech Ltd., which provided the basis for his paper on DRM.

Through the presentation, Kamat says he wanted to make academia aware of this new market. “The DRM project contains a detailed analysis of the online market after the DotCom debacle,” he says.

Although he submitted the paper before he enrolled at Mays this fall, Kamat says he has received enormous support from Mays faculty, especially Dr. Joobin Choobineh, an associate professor of information and operations management, who helped edit the paper.

Senior finance major Eric Bethea was one of five Texas A&M students presented with the Outstanding 12th Man Award, the highest honor given by Texas A&M’s 12th Man Foundation. The award recognizes their extraordinary effort and contributions made in organizing the Red, White and Blue Out in honor of Texas A&M University and Aggie athletics.

Bethea and four other Texas A&M students (Nick Luton, Cole Roberts, Kourtney Rogers and Josh Rosinski) coordinated the Red, White and Blue Out at Kyle Field to honor those affected by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Similar to A&M’s Maroon Out, the student organizers sold more than 80,000 T-shirts to deck out Kyle Field in red, white and blue. Proceeds from the project, which totaled approximately $250,000, went to victims’ families.

While its long been known for being a great research university, Texas A&M is taking another step forward. This time it’s in the area of commercial development. A plan was recently unveiled, called the Technology Transfer and Commercialization Initiative, which is being spearheaded by Vice President for Research Richard Ewing.

Mays’ Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship (CNVE) will likely play a significant role in the initiative. CNVE is already working to boost student and faculty interest in technology commercialization, says Lenae Huebner, assistant director.

“The opportunities for our students and graduates will be greatly impacted by this initiative,” she says. “We would like to have a collaborative effort that would answer the needs of the TTCI, while offering our students and constituents the opportunity to participate in the commercialization of leading-edge technologies.”

Huebner says the involvement with the commercialization center would help CNVE make its vision of helping A&M excel in technology commercialization a reality.

“This aggressive new initiative falls squarely on our mission to build an entrepreneurial mindset among our students, faculty and researchers,” she says.

For more information, visit http://vpr.tamu.edu/ttci/.

Marketing students didn’t dare doze off in class when Steve Moore ’79 came to visit. Not just because of the great Aggie stories he could tell. Rather because Moore is an example of marketing savvy at its best.

His track record includes serving as vice president and director of worldwide sports with Coca-Cola (managing Coke’s World Cup and Olympic programs). Now, Moore is senior vice president of International Management Group, overseeing the brand transformation of Wembley National Stadium in London, England.

While much of his discussion focused on market research and brand, he shared with students some of the lessons he’s learned along the way.

“To be a great marketer, you have to think about things differently,” says Moore, who earned his BBA in marketing in 1979 and MS in finance in 1981. “Every good marketer I know listens better than they talk and they also have very specific goals. If you don’t have goals, it’s a recipe for disaster.”

Hope Koch, a doctoral student in information and operations management, is one of 40 students worldwide headed to Barcelona in December for the International Conference on Information Systems’ Doctoral Consortium.

Koch was selected after a review of her dissertation, which involves case research on four e-marketplaces. Since starting her research in August 2000, she’s interviewed top management from companies worldwide.

“I am interviewing top executives in nearly 50 multinational corporations about what they think makes a successful business-to-business electronic commerce marketplace,” she says.

This is the top conference in the information systems field and Koch was selected from a record number of applicants.

“I feel very honored,” Koch says. “When I saw the list of students selected for the conference I noticed that they came from [very reputable b-schools]. I am thrilled for A&M to be included in this group.”

Pizza — that great American favorite. But, it hasn’t always been a weekly meal of choice, largely because good pizza (or any pizza) was hard to find. That is until Frank Carney came along.

In 1958, Frank and his brother, Dan, borrowed $600 from their mother and opened the very first Pizza Hut in Wichita, Kansas. Their vision of what pizza could be drove Pizza Hut’s success. Stores popped up around the country and by the mid 1970s, Pizza Hut had 3,000 locations.

Frank stepped away from the pizza business for a while, after selling Pizza Hut to PepsiCo in 1977. He tried his hand as a venture capitalist for 13 years and readily admits it wasn’t the best career move. In 1994, he went back to what he knew best — pizza. Frank joined up with Papa John’s and has 133 stores open.

Frank’s entrepreneurial vision made him an obvious choice for this year’s Conn Distinguished New Venture Leader Award, given by the Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship.

During his recent visit to campus, Frank was quick to share his list of things learned with Mays students (as well as some Papa John’s pizza). And at the top of that list — if you’re going to do something, do it with passion.

“You can’t be everything to everyone,” he said, “so pick what you want to do and be great at it.”

Dropping everything to return to school isn’t always easy financially. That’s why quick payback has become even more important, helping MBA students make up for lost salary and the expense of school.

The Mays MBA Program was once again recognized for its fast payback. Business Week magazine recently ranked Mays among the top 10 in MBA education ROI.

“The Business Week results indicate that an education from Mays is clearly a great value for students,” says Dean Jerry Strawser. “But this value goes beyond the actual cost of the program. The real value for Mays students comes in the in-depth business knowledge they gain through the program as well as the outstanding compensation they receive upon graduation.”

A survey of Mays MBA graduates indicated that they could expect 66.2 percent salary increases and take 4.9 years to completely amortize costs, considerably less than the average payback period of 5.6 years. Median salary of Mays MBAs at graduation was $71,200.

Retailing leaders are defining and redefining the industry as they navigate the strong economic waves battering their company ships.

“The economy is tough, but strong leaders with vision reveal specific characteristics,” said Dr. David M. Szymanski, director of the Center for Retailing Studies, as he opened the 20th Annual Retailing Summit in Dallas. “They demonstrate unique foresight, a student’s desire for learning, inspiring thought, strategic intelligence, a proactive mindset, and an ideal-point focus.”

Executives from Pike Place Fish (Seattle), Neiman Marcus, CarMax, Wal-Mart, Origins and other successful businesses bore out his comments. Keynoters John Yokoyama, owner of Pike Place Fish, and partner Jim Bergquist, founder of BizFutures Consulting, pulled some 500 attendees out of their seats to toss huge dead fish down the aisles.

Participants experienced the leadership model at Pike Place Fish first hand: management by inspiration. Every employee assumes ownership and becomes a leader. “Leaders,” said Yokoyama, “have the capacity to create new realities for themselves and other people.”

For more detailed summaries of these and other Retailing Summit presentations, visit www.crstamu.org.