The ROI Podcast

Avoid the hidden cost of doing business | Ep. 61

Besides another economic recession, nothing can stop a company's growth faster than business regulation violations. These hidden costs sneak up on many business owners at the worst time, if we let them. So what's our best defense? An even better offense. Whether you're planning a new start-up or a seasoned business professional, this episode will both educate and give you the necessary tools to protect your organization from unnecessary regulation violation fines.

----

Do you have a question? Looking to get help on a business decision? Know a great guest for our show? Email roipod@iupui.edu so we can help your organization make better business decisions.

----

Ready to take your next step? Check out if a Kelley MBA is right for you: https://bit.ly/35aeAfZ

----

Show Notes:

MATT:

Regulations – the rules of the road within business; a term carrying many mixed feelings. Some say we have too many, others say we have too few. Regardless of where we stand, the reality is we must comply with the laws of our land or face penalties. On this episode, we’re sitting down with Judith Wright, Assistant Clinical Professor of Business Law at Kelley, whose helping us play by the rules and protect what we’ve worked so hard to build. Let’s get to the podcast…

||ROI MUSIC PLAYS||

MATT:

Welcome to another episode of the ROI Podcast presented by the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. I’m your host, Matt Martella alongside Associate Dean of Academic Programs, Phil Powell. If this is your first time joining us, welcome to the podcast. We put out a weekly episode to help organizations make better business decisions. And for those who are sharing this with friends on social media, we want to say thank you. We are very honored you find enough value in our weekly content to pass these episodes along.

And Phil, I think today’s topic carries a lot of value, especially for those of us in the early stages of organizational development. However, no matter how established our companies are, there are some great take-a-ways on this episode to protect not just ourselves, but our clients, our employees, and our organizations.

PHIL:

Absolutely Matt. We’re taking a dive into business regulations because so many times, organizations are unaware they may have requirements, restrictions, or compliances they must follow. And it’s the failure to follow these regulations that cripple businesses of every size. But before we dive in, it’s important to establish why regulations exist in the first place.

Judith Wright: A lot of people think, "Oh, there's too much regulation and regulation is bad." Until something happens to you. And then people say, "There ought to be a law!" Right? You've heard that phrase before? So, let me just give you an example of that. All businesses have to provide worker's compensation protections. So what that means is the government looks to business to provide for compensation for individuals who are hurt while they are at work. This is not new law. It's ancient law actually. And has been around since the 1800s and earlier than that even in Europe, then we brought those ideas to the US of course when we formed a country here. So, since the industrial age, if you get hurt at work your employer has to provide some protection for you, has to help you recover from that. Without that, think about what would happen. If you went to work and got hurt severely, theoretically, an employer could call your family, tell them to come get you and just plug in another worker. That doesn't seem like a fair way to treat workers. So I kind of liken it like this, this will make sense to you, it's like driving a car. You get behind the wheel of a car, and you're expected to know all the rules of the road, and comply with all the rules of the road. And if you don't you can be pulled over and ticketed for that. So when you get behind the wheel of a business, and you want to drive that business, you're supposed to know all the rules of the business, and if you don't comply, you can be ticketed for that lack of compliance. 

MATT:

It’s important to understand that regulations exist for protection. It cannot be stated enough. Of course they’re not perfect and according to Judith, they are usually lagging from what’s actually happening in the marketplace. And as she mentioned as an example, though it can be burdensome for an organization to comply, they are meant for organizational safety. Just like monopoly regulations protect industries and keep competition alive, environmental regulations make sure our drinking water is clean, and health regulations make sure we get the right treatment.

PHIL:

It’s easy for organizations to say that regulations hinder their business or more regulations need to exist. That’s not the point. Regardless of our beliefs about regulations, the reality is, they exist and we have a legal obligation to comply. We want to make it clear, our focus is helping us leaders be proactive and educated about regulations affecting our industry rather than having to react to sanctions and pay fines for breaking the rules. Especially for violations we unintentionally are not following. If your organization is currently facing some government sanctions, stick around because Judith offers some next steps for your business.

MATT:

So let’s start with being proactive. As organizational leaders, it’s our duty to understand, not only our industry, but how we are to operate, legally, as a business. The hard thing is, we are so consumed with growing our organization that we do not have the time to follow each law being passed into Congress - and ask if it applies to our industry. So how do we stay educated? The first way to be proactive on industry regulations is by joining a Trade Association.

Judith Wright: So what these organizations do, essentially, is help educate members about running a business in that specialty area.  So they provide newsletters, they have webinars, they have training programs, they provide market information, what's going on in your market, what are the trends. They do consumer studies. They have technology reports. Economic impact studies. All kinds of things that, if you're willing to educate yourself, help you feel more in control of those issues. So if there's a new rule proposed, for example. I saw the other day that the start of California is looking at banning plastic straws. So if you're a business that uses plastic straws, that's suddenly of interest to you. But the trade association can be in there early on helping influence whether the government actually bans them, if so, how the ban will take place and what kind of straws are ok and what kind are not and influence the outcome of that. Helping the regulators understand the cost of making this change for folks that are using plastic straws.

PHIL:

These associations, typically, have full time staff members whose job it is to educate organizations on new laws and even laws being proposed that could affect the industry as a whole. For us leaders, the one resource that’s most scarce is time. We all have the same hours in a day, no matter what. So to have a team of individuals breaking down regulations affecting our organization is critical to remaining proactive. Judith also mentions that since many of these associations make up multiple businesses, they bring more influence to the law makers versus our organization as an individual.

Judith Wright: And it works because, if you or I own a coffee shop and we want to call the governor or the legislator and tell them what we think about it, they might take your call and be very interested. At the same time, a trade association represents dozens in a state and thousands nationally and therefore can kind of get the voice of the small business person before a government party in a way that you or I would find time consuming, maybe frustrating and maybe difficult to do.

MATT:

So now that we have an education pipeline for protection, the second way our organizations can remain proactive on regulation compliance is to invest into legal counsel sooner, rather than later.

Judith Wright: That said, ignorance of the law is not a defense. And so, often times, for example a health code violation, if they change something and you don't know, you're going to get cited for that for each day you're out of compliance, potentially. The cost of non-compliance is 2-3 times the cost of compliance. Meaning, if you fail to follow the rules and you get caught and you're subjected to fines, it's felt by experts that it's going to cost you 2-3 times the cost of just doing it right in the first place. And those costs come from things like fines, of course from doing things you're not permitted to do, but just the disruption in your business, the damage to your reputation, because the competitors do make hay with that. If there's, you know, a newspaper story that your company got cited for health code violations, your competitors are the ones who fan that flame.  And then just the whole cost of having to restructure how you do business and get it on track. And the legal fees in terms of settling that. I think that's an important thing to realize, ignoring the cost of regulation can be very expensive down the road when it catches up with you.

PHIL:

The hours spent with a lawyer outside the courtroom are so much lower than having to hire one once our company is before a judge, which means a substantial cost reduction. When getting a lawyer involved early on, lean on their expertise for clarity. They are the ones to check our organization’s blind spots and make sure we’ve structured our companies properly. Start to ask other business owners who they work with – or better yet, ask the trade association for legal recommendations. And, should we find ourselves dealing with sanctions, we’ll have someone to defend us early on – which could mean the difference between keeping our doors open and polishing up our resumes.

MATT:

So we joined a trade association for our industry, we’ve met with a lawyer who checked our blind spots, as an organization, now it’s time to create systems within our company that make sure we stay compliant to these regulations.

Judith Wright: Go back to the driving the car analogy, we all know there are rules to driving a car, but that doesn't keep us from getting in there, learning them and driving that car. And it's the same in business. Once you get a command of those rules and you know, for example, when you drive down the road, every day, you don't consciously in your head say, "Oh, be sure to stop at the stop signs." You know, and it's an intuitive reaction on your part. Once you know the regulation in your business and you become comfortable with that and you've built it into your processes and you have confidence that you're doing things right, every time you do them, and you have a calendar that reminds you when to do filings and that sort of thing, it becomes just part of the intuitive why you do business. It's not scary, it's just the way that it is.

PHIL:

B-P comes to mind when I think of major violations. As we know, back in April of 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded – sadly killing 11 employees and leaking around 4.9-million barrels of oil, according to the U.S. Government - into the Gulf of Mexico. This caused major environmental problems along with legal battles, bad press, and huge fines.  The EPA estimates that B-P has paid $4 BILLION in settlements, fines, and penalties. According to the White House Oil Spill Commission, B-P could have prevented the missteps that lead to the disaster by educating their workers and creating systems to comply with regulations. The report also states there were no procedure set on how to communicate faulty test results to experts. So as the leaders of our organizations, taking a little extra time creating systems within our organization that address regulation compliance could save us not just our jobs, but our organization as a whole.

MATT:

After we educate ourselves, get legal advice and make sure we have the right systems in place, the final take-a-way to be proactive on regulations is budget for them. If we’re an entrepreneur, do research to find compliance costs that affect our organizations and include it in our financial planning strategy. If we’re established as an organization, continue leaning into the trade association for ideas so that if we have to change compliance or add systems to protect ourselves, we have the cash to do so.

Judith Wright: The US Chamber of Commerce did a study where they asked small business owners for information about the costs in their companies. And what they found was that, on average, a small business pays just under $12-thousand dollars a year, per employee to cover regulatory costs. Now I'm guessing most small businesses who are excited about their entrepreneurial business plan have not factored in $12-thousand dollars per employee to pay for regulation. And the same study found that on average a small business spends $83-thousand dollars to comply with regulation in its first year of start up. So that's a hidden cost... it's not hidden, it's just one that folks overlook. And as your business grows, and you get a little larger, additional federal laws starts to play. For example, some federal laws apply to businesses with 15 or more employees. So when you go from 14 to 15, suddenly you're in a realm of new regulation that you may not have thought about. And the thing that's interesting for people to take into account is that oftentimes the fine is per violation. For example, lawn care services frequently have to deal with disposal of grass and yard waste. Or clippings and trimmings from trees and that sort of thing. And more than half the states, at a state level, regulate how that waste gets disposed of.  So if the rules changed on that and you think you're ok but you're not, each time you improperly dispose of that waste could be a separate fine. And let's say for sake of argument the fine is $1,000 per violation. But if you've disposed of things improperly for the last month or so, without realizing it, you could have multiple thousands of dollars in fines before you even realize you're doing something wrong. Now, does the government come and catch you in the net and say, "Oh, you've done something here." Not necessarily, sometimes they'll work with you to help you understand that.

PHIL:

And it’s examples like these that help us prepare for the ever changing regulations. Whether we’re on the brink of filing for that LLC or about to celebrate our 100 year anniversary, we can still become proactive to make sure our organizations continue its journey of success. Regulations will affect us in some capacity – if we educate ourselves, invite the right help, create systems of protection, and make sure we have the cash available, our organizations can enjoy life in the fast lane.

MATT:

Let’s switch sides now. Say, as an organization, we find ourselves in trouble. We violated a regulation and now we’re facing a penalty.

Judith Wright: Here is some legal advise, you don't call the regulator yourself and try to work it out. You really need legal counsel at that point. So number one, if you realize you have a problem, number one, face it, acknowledge it. Number two, get legal help now. If you don't already have a legal advisor, it's time to get legal help now. And let that lawyer help you interface with the government about how to resolve that problem. There are very few problems that can't be solved. Perhaps you can change your practices in a way that show you have a "good faith" effort going forward and they're not going to be so punishing with you. Perhaps you can negotiate a fine with the government. Honestly, they're there to make sure the protections are in place. They're not there to drive people out of business. But if you find that you really violated the law in some way, a lawyer is someone you should sit down with and talk to about it.

PHIL:

B-P still operates as an organization, despite the $4-billion in payouts, negative press, and setbacks they’ve endured since 2010. Now, hopefully we’re not facing major problems like B-P, but the take-a-way here is to endure. Acknowledge our violation and more importantly our responsibility going forward. Make the changes necessary, pay our fines, and then jump into proactive mode. It’s like a car accident or getting a speeding ticket. When we get back in the car, we become hyper aware or nervous, but what’s most important is the fact we got ourselves back in the car and on the road. Our business can make it through if we lead it the right way.

||ROI MUSIC PLAYS||

MATT:

So let’s recap. Whether we agree with regulations or not or whether we think there are too many or too few does not change the fact that as an organization, we are obligated to abide by these laws. Embracing this truth helps us become proactive – keeping our organizations protected from fines. The first way we can be proactive on regulations is by joining a Trade Association. Not only do they provide the proper education, they voice our concerns to lawmakers with authority. Next, invest into legal counsel. They will ensure we have the right structure within our business to comply with regulations. Plus, if we find ourselves in violation, our legal experts already understand the inner workings of our organization, potentially saving us thousands in legal fees later on. Then, we need to create systems that ensure and protect our compliance. Whether its calendar reminders, check-ups, educational courses, or audits, create systems that keep our companies safe. Finally, complying with regulations costs money. If we work these costs into our startup plan or budgeting protocols, when we do have to pay, we’re not scrambling to find cash. And if we find ourselves facing regulatory penalties, it’s very important to acknowledge the problem, then get legal help as soon as possible. It’s highly discouraged to work with regulators alone. This could mean the difference between massive payouts or ultimately having our business shut down.

If you’ve enjoyed this episode and would like to hear more, head over to your favorite podcasting app. While you’re there, be sure to hit the subscribe button so you can receive the latest episode each week. Thanks again for spending time with us on the ROI Podcast presented by the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. I’m your host Matt Martella alongside Phil Powell, where we work to help organizations make better business decisions. We’ll see you next week.

Part Two: Disruptive learning is disrupting business | Ep. 60

In this second episode of a two part series, CEO and Founder of StartEdUp, Don Wettrick continues on how innovation in the classroom creates disruption in the business world. He's also a Noblesville High School teacher and host of The StartEdUp Podcast.

----

Do you have a question? Looking to get help on a business decision? Know a great guest for our show? Email roipod@iupui.edu so we can help your organization make better business decisions.

----

Ready to take your next step? Check out if a Kelley MBA is right for you: https://bit.ly/35aeAfZ

----

Show Notes:

MATT:

Welcome to another episode of the ROI Podcast presented by the Indiana University Kelley School of Business, I’m your host Matt Martella joined by, as always, Associate Dean of Academic Programs, Phil Powell. Before we dive into this episode, I just want to say, thank you to everyone who has shared our podcast on social media and with friends. We work hard to help organizations make better decisions through our weekly content. And if this is your first time joining us, we just want to say welcome. If you enjoy our podcast, we would really appreciate it if you left us a review on iTunes.

||ROI PODCAST MUSIC||

On this episode, we’re continuing with part two of this two part series with CEO of StartedUp, Don Wettrick who is working to change education by leading and inspiring teachers and students with innovation and entrepreneurship.

PHIL:

Last week Don took us inside his classroom where he carefully teaches students to think for themselves. It’s not about receiving a grade in his class to graduate, it’s about creating innovation among his students. He also shared some incredible success stories from his students. If you missed the first part, I highly recommend you go back and take a listen because Don sets the foundation for today’s topic.

Today, Don’s helping us apply what he teaches his students – innovation as the breeding grounds for success. It all starts with educating ourselves well past graduation.

Don Wettrick: Refocus on what your education even is; even if you're 46, I'm 46, right? That's the one thing I love about being in this class, on most days, I'm the dumbest person in this room. My students, collectively, know way more than I ever will. So I'm constantly... we use this term way too much, but I'm a life-long learner. And I also spot trends. And I want to be a part of that. Therefore, and I'm not bashing people, like, I'm mortified that people will brag about the fact that they've binged watched a season of, fill in your favorite show over a weekend. I'm like, why? Why? So I'm looking to improve or get left behind. Watching Game of Thrones, season one through five is just stupid, in my humble opinion. If you're filling your brain with positive things and things that are going to move you forward, you're going to be ahead. And that's not compliance based, that's just me wanting to be better. But the whole.. my thing I can't stand when you hear this around graduation, "I'm outta here!" That's signalling that you are done learning. There is nothing more toxic in our society than you being done learning. Right? So if you are 46, if you are 56, you can constantly upgrade, you can constantly re-invent yourself, and by the way you should. Because there are a lot of things that are scarily going to go away. And if you are than, you are going to be ahead of the game.

MATT:

Yet, innovation and education cannot thrive without failure.

Don Wettrick: This is my favorite thing to talk about. I'm going to give a metaphor. Asking a kid, if they had to buy a video game, a video game now costs $75 bucks unless it's Fortnite, which is free, which it's not free but... If they spent $75 bucks, and they beat the game on the first try, they would hate the game. Because there's no failure! People like failure. Like, when we ask a girl to dance, and every time we got a yes, that's just straight up boring. There's no challenge in that. We like failure - we just don't like it in school. And this is my whole point of the whole compliance thing, are we here to learn? Or are we here to comply? I remember when I was in college, there were two types of professors. There was one professor that, he was a little bit free-spirited, let's say and that everybody got an "A" and you were there to learn. Or there was the guy that said, "hey, this class is going to be tough but it's going to be worth it." The drop/add period, no one wanted the professor that challenged you! Because you weren't there you learn, you were there to get a grade and just get a degree. That's scary! Now again, I got away with that in 1995. That's different. So the whole approach failure I then, again that culture build? Hey, what are you here for? By the way, my grading is based on their reflections. They tell me what they deserve. And they usually don't B-S me. By the third or fourth week, they know you're not going to B-S me out of it. So if you're like, I deserve an "A," why? And then you tell me why. But that failure has got to be a part of it. No one ever first released a product on their first iteration. Actually it wouldn't be an iteration if it's their first try, but you get my point. It's got to be a part of it. And once you get that off the table, like okay, let's all breath, it's ok if this first line of code doesn't work or if your first event didn't get 100 people to show up to it, that is version number one, it's cool.

MATT:

For some, we wrestle with, “well, I was not born an entrepreneur, therefore I cannot start…” fill in the blank. But Don disagrees.

Don Wettrick: There are some born entrepreneurs, I'm sure. And there are risk takers. But I'm going to quote Adam Grant. I really liked Adam Grant's book, Originals. Opening chapter is the kids, the college students that started Warby Parker. They all had backups. They were all going to take really cool jobs if this Warby Parker thing didn't work out. And I think that there's this misnomer that the total "Maverick," the total screw it all, I'm going all in, putting all the chips in the middle of the table as an entrepreneur. The measured, careful, "I'm going to be prudent about this" is also an entrepreneur. So it can always be trained. I shudder when people think, "I was a born entrepreneur." They're made as well. There's a difference between imagination and creativity, but then there's a difference between creativity and innovation. Imagination you think it, creativity you start doing it, right? If it's really creative and totally new or at least totally new to you, now it's innovative. That is our priority one. Starting them to see opportunities and starting to see things in a different light, that is needed in today's workforce. Workforce, as in you're working for somebody else. I'm cool with that. However, in that innovation process, if they're like, "Wettrick, I'm onto something." That is when the pressure's off. I don't force them to be entrepreneurial, but that's when we have some time to say, "okay, now let's go through lean start up, let's go through a canvas method, let's go through Gantt charts," you know, pick your poison. Once they have that entrepreneurial mindset and some skills, then they I gently encourage them to pursue it. And then that's kind of what our foundation does, I can get into that later, but you know I started looking into, alright, let's look into seed funding or see if you can boots strap this or etc. But again, I don't force them to be entrepreneurial, I just encourage it if they get to that level. The fun part is that sometimes they're in the later stages of life and they have some capital and they can hire my students. One of the things we have coming up here we will run an analytics and several other things. We're going to go out and help small businesses. I'm actually getting small businesses approaching us, which is a great thing to have. But I'm like, "okay, be on standby. I would rather my students go and find you." I don't want to like, "you get this company, and you get that company." I'm telling them, go out and find it. Just the other day, I went to a restaurant in Indianapolis, which I won't say who they were. It was a fantastic experience and no one was in there. I'm like, what the literal hell. And they're like, "we hope more people will talk about it." I'm like, "what's your Facebook page? What are you branding? How are you marketing? Do you incentive anybody that checks in on Snapchat?" - "What's Snapchat?" - Oh my God, come on! $5 in ads will increase your traffic. My kids can go and help that business right now. So I'll get in these strike-up conversations and I'm like, "Here's my number, call my students." But I'm trying to train them to do that. So they can start reaching out to the place that makes the wonderful cupcakes but they're in their 70s or the new business that just opened down the street and they sell whatever. I want my students to go, "Hey, I've been working on this stuff in class. Can I put it to use?" And that's a great thing. Again, I don't expect them all to be in business or be entrepreneurial, but just helping them just gives them and insight and awareness on how to make things better. 

 

MATT:

And it’s up to us, organizational leaders, to identify innovators, then come alongside them in mentorship. Don says we also need to knock down the walls that hinder innovation. Especially in the education world.

Don Wettrick: My first instinct would just say, get them out into the real world while they're in class. I think that there's a lot to be learned in theory. There are certain things you have to learn, but there's also a lot of the experiential that isn't going to be in the classroom, ever. So the more you can find mentorships, the more you can collaborate, the more you can help other, smaller businesses in Marion County, Monroe County, wherever would be beneficial in my opinion. And then also, and I don't know what your guys's policy is, take away the I-P thing. That is one of the things that have changed here in my 2nd year of this class. And for full disclosure, this wasn't at Noblesville. But the high school where I was at, our students wrote a book and put it out on Amazon. And it wasn't going to be a best seller, but it was starting to sell some books. And they were like, "hey, where's our royalty check?" I'm like, "what do you mean?" And they're like, "well, the students wrote it on the school's computers, right?" - "Yeah" - "On school time, right?" - "Yeah" - "By interviewing other students, right?" - "Yeah" - "That's our check." Legally they're right. So Noblesville, man I'm living the dream here, anything the students come up with here, it's their I-P. So that's my beef, I don't know the policies of Kelley, but that is my beef with a lot of colleges. If you come up with something on university time, the university owns it. That's gotta end. And by the way, a lot of times when your students go on to be really successful, they'll write a nice check anyway.

 

MATT:

Innovation is not simply inventing the next best product. Innovation happens within our branding – both organizationally and personally.

Don Wettrick: And lastly, everybody, and this is my Gary V. moment, every company is a media company. Every person is their own media brand. I think if you are 56 you can re-invent yourself. You can stand for something. Whether that's through your church, whether that's through your works, your hobbies, your passions. If you're really into smurfs comic books, you could be one of the most authoritarians on smurf comic books, seasons one through eight, if all of a sudden you wanted to grow and brand that. You can stand for something and there's never been an easier time than now. So if you're 56, 66, 76, 26, you can still start learning and pursuing those passions.

PHIL:

(CLOSING REMARKS)

||ROI PODCAST MUSIC||

MATT:

So let’s recap. As leaders, Don says we need to refocus our education – we need to stay hungry to learn and looking to re-invent ourselves because we will either improve or get left behind in this world. Next, people enjoy failure – not all the time, but in doses. We want the challenge of learning how to succeed. Videogames are dull if they don’t have moments of failure. Just like success is not sweet if we don’t have that hero’s journey of overcoming obstacles. Don then explains that entrepreneurs and innovators are not simply, “let’s go all in” minded. Some very successful innovators have amazing back up plans in case their ideas fall through. And great news, one is not simply born an entrepreneur, we all have the ability to learn how to innovate. Finally, our organizations and individual likeness are brands. No matter our age, no matter our organization, we possess the tools to re-invent ourselves and stand for a deep held belief.

As always, we want to thank you for listening. Our goal with each episode is to help organizations make better decisions. This has been another episode of the ROI Podcast presented by the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. I’m your host, Matt Martella alongside Phil Powell. We’ll see you next week.

Part One: Disruptive learning is disrupting business | Ep. 59

Tucked away inside the Nobilesville High School library, a room full of students make scribbles on a white, dry-erase board. Fired up from a live video-interview with Seth Godin, these teens start bringing their ideas to life as they collaborate in groups, answering the tough question, "why?" In this first episode of a two part series, CEO and Founder of StartEdUp, Don Wettrick demonstrates how innovation in the classroom creates disruption in the business world. He's also hosts The StartEdUp Podcast.

----

Do you have a question? Looking to get help on a business decision? Know a great guest for our show? Email roipod@iupui.edu so we can help your organization make better business decisions.

----

Ready to take your next step? Check out if a Kelley MBA is right for you: https://bit.ly/35aeAfZ

----

SHOW NOTES:

MATT:

Welcome to another episode of the ROI Podcast presented by the Indiana University Kelley School of Business, where we help organizations make better business decisions, I’m your host, Matt Martella, joined by, as always, Associate Dean of Academic Programs, Phil Powell. If you’re tuning in for the first time, first off, thank you for joining us. It’s an honor to spend this time with you each week. Normally we discuss practical business and leadership tips with the help of our faculty members or industry experts. However, this week, we have a special treat for you. We’re doing a two-part series, featuring CEO and Co-Founder of StartEDup, Don Wettrick. His not-for-profit received recognition from progressive leaders, such as Seth Godin, Tim Ferriss, and Gary Vaynerchuk, just to name a few. He hosts a leadership podcast called The Started Up Podcast, which receives thousands of downloads per episode and they’re no stranger to Forbes Magazine either. Forbes has featured Wettrick numerous times for his progressive style of teaching. Don Wettrick is also a teacher at Noblesville High School where he’s disrupting traditional educational learning by letting students decide what THEY want to learn, then empowering them to do so.

PHIL:

(ADLIB)

Don Wettrick: This is a class at Noblesville High School, called Innovation and Open Sourced Learning. It's called that because the first six... seven weeks it's an innovation course. Like we literally try to teach you how to think for yourself, how to re-frame problems, how to create seekers and peekers, not moaners and groaners, I'll get into that in a little bit. And the rest of the year then, is open sourced learning in a sense that some of the things that you specifically want to learn that I'm not good at, you should build a network and find those people. So, if you said I really want to get into coding Python, I can't do that. But I can sure as heck help you find people that do know that. And so therefore they open source their learning… I don't like it when people moan, "well it's not what you know, it's who you know," okay, let's know people. 

MATT:
The big draw for students comes from the open learning environment. Tucked away inside the Noblesville High School library, a few dozen students collaborate in pods, not desks, working together to find solutions to ideas THEY generated. However, getting to the point of passion for these students takes intentional conversations, early on.

Don Wettrick: If you tell a student, "hey, go learn something." What? That is, and I'm going to call a timeout, because that's the hard part about this class, is that when I first started it, I set them free a little bit too soon. Because a lot of times kids go, "oh, finally a class where I can do what I want to do." What do you want to do? Oh, I don't know. And they're so used to being told sit down, shut your mouth and work on this. That's natural. So the freedom thing has to be released a little bit slower. Answering the fundamental question of why you're in school. And for years it was compliance. You know, I was just talking earlier before you came in. I didn't go... and I fully admit, when I graduated in 19-90-something, I didn't' go to learn. I went to go get a degree. Because in 1995, if you had a degree, you're good. That's dead! If you don't have skills, you're not employable. And that's mortifying to me because I think there are a lot of students that still have, because their parents, that worked for them... "Oh just go and major in anything, it won't matter." Yes it does matter! And if they don't come out with skills, it's hurting. So I think what's been resinating and I think two-thirds of the people on my show are entrepreneurs. They're rule breakers, they're let's try this my way. That is asking, "then why are we here? Why are we in this school?" Well it's to prepare our kids for the future.. okay, what is it about, what's futuristic about some of the things we do? And by the way, I think traditional education still has a place. You cannot be innovative if you do not know how to read. You cannot be innovative if you do not know how to communicate. You cannot be innovative if you do not understand or appreciate history or how it's going to repeat itself. So I still love education, but there has to be a time and a space where you are allowed to pursue some of your own autonomous interests and work for something that matters, to you. It has to have purpose. Because that whole B-S about, "why are we doing this?" "Because it's on the S-A-T." Oh God. That just doesn't matter in our modern world. We're never going to be smarter than a machine. If it can be automated, it will in the next five years. So what's truly important and what's truly being demanded is that people that are innovative, that have creative solutions. Because a machine can't do that. And I think that's starting to resonate with people. And I hate to be fear based, I really do. I'm a positive guy. But I think some of these things that are coming up, this train that is coming called machine learning A-I, whatever, that's starting to get people to go, "maybe there's something different here." So the curriculum is basically, we start the unlearning process? We start to look at... well first of all we build the culture. And that culture build includes some blogs, includes some things by Seth Godin, it includes a TedTalk here and there. We also go into the purpose. And we also start taking a look at where things are headed. Because I want them to see why they're here. Some of the kids signed up because their parents said they had read about it, or some of the kids heard from the other kids that it's a fun class, but I want to know fundamentally why you're here. So that why, we address first, Simon Sinek... hashtag Simon. So once we establish that why, then all of a sudden we start going into the nuts and bolts of how you break down problems. Collect and connect, which is not mine that was Tina Seelig at Stanford. We start going to little sprinkles of "D" school stuff, right? And then also, we start taking time like I just said, we just started on our social media profiles. How do you reach out to people? How do you collaborate with people? We were just talking earlier, we reached out to Ninja - you may not know who that is, but he's a famous streamer on Twitch and on YouTube and Twitter. And so we were talking about the power of social media. He got back with us in two minutes. A guy that's got millions of followers, and he starts sending us video messages. That's powerful. Because we're kind of demonstrating to the kids, please no middle fingers, no duck-face selfies, no "F" this, "F" that, you are professional. Treat yourself like a professional online. And if you do, people are like, "what the heck? This kids like 17-years old and building a business." And then we start teaching them, this is new this year, and I'm really excited about it, but we also teach them actual skills, especially in analytics. We're going to help them grow. And we're also going to keep the data on it and just show, no charge, because we have found that kids that can... they don't know what to work on quite yet, but boy are they experts at telling everyone else what to do. And then once they do, all of a sudden they're like, "you know what I should work on after this?" Same thing - we do that also with non-profits. We'll work with really small, we're talking a staff of three, kind of non-profit. Help them brand, help them gain awareness, help them raise funds. Then after I force them to work with a non-profit and a small business, now they're itching to go. And I should say with a clarification, this isn't an entrepreneur class, but it is. Again, it's innovation and open sourced learning. If something is truly innovative, and needed, I mean technically I could make a salt shaker into a punching bag and it doesn't mean its a good product. But if it's innovative and if it's needed you might as well take it to market, and then I promote entrepreneurialism. 

MATT:

The traditional model of education has a student complete a task, receive a grade, then based on your grade average, get your diploma. But Wettrick says, it’s far more than your grade in his class – it’s completing what you said you would do.

Don Wettrick: One of the hardest things to do in the world, is the things that you said you want to do. Right? I told myself I was going to lose 20 pounds this year, it did not happen. Why? Because I didn't have an accountability partner. So that reflection process is the way we grade, in the sense that, the things that you said you're going to do, I'm there to have you backwards design it. We fell out of calendar. We have a list of things we want to accomplish. If you didn't accomplish those, in your reflection, tell me why. Don't give me this flowery essay laden, great answer, like tell me what you struggled with. Because that's how we're going to get through this. And so, therefore, every two weeks they either give me a podcast, a YouTube post or a blog. We live in the greatest time to document everything, it's free on YouTube. So I'm like, even if you just don't show it to anybody, I will grade you. Because a lot of times, when you start talking out loud, you start making connections. So you start telling me what you need to move forward. Secondly, if I've gotten to them, they do understand branding. People love that hero's journey. So if all a sudden you see a kid on YouTube or has their own podcast and they're like, "okay, here's what I'm moving towards. I really need to know more about this kind of coding language or I need to know more about this engineering thing." Then they'll start building an audience and adults will reach out and they'll go, "here's where you're going wrong." And they start offering help. They start building a network at 17/18! That is why I reflect and that is how I grade. And so it's kind of crazy, I know. And I've actually gone through several different variations I grade, but that's the one I've stuck with the longest. In that, they kind of start making their own connections and they tell me how they're going to move forward. I mean there are some students that still comply, just to comply. And by the way, this class is not for everybody. It's just not. I've noticed that. There are some people that like... case and point, there was a really, really nice student who, towards the first semester, it looks like she was going to start crying. I'm like, "what's wrong?" She's like, "this is the only 'B' I have." And I go, "okay?" And she was like, "Well, I'm just..." and there was this long pause, and I go, "Do you want an 'A'?" And she didn't know what to say. And I walked over to my computer, I logged in and I go, "It's done. You have an 'A'." - "Well now I feel guilty." I said, "okay, are you in this class to satisfy me? Or are you in this class to pursue things in your life?" And in that answer, she knew she was in this class to get a good GPA. She's not meant for this class. Nice girl, oh my gosh nice girl. But she was still under that old model, and that's fine. Then I have some kids, I had one of my most brilliant students, he had a "D". And I'm like, "could you please turn in your reflections?" - "Oh.. I'm too busy." Why? He was basically freelancing for two tech firms. He was making money. "Wettrick, I don't have time for your silly... I mean it's good for the other kids, but I'm busy." What do I say? Like at the end of the semester, I had to look at myself in the mirror and go, "this is my best student, and he's getting a 'D'." And I apologized to him and I'm like, "I gave you a 'C' because I felt guilty about it." He's like, "don't worry about it man, I don't care what my GPA is." Like he barely graduated anyway. That "C" ended up being his best grade. And so, learning? He was learning constantly. That other girl, she really hadn't taken away much from the class other than, she was doing all of her reflections and they were always very measured, she did it as a blog, and the grammar was perfect, and that's cool and all, but actual wanting to do better and do things outside of the school? She's doesn't want to do.

MATT:

And it’s the students that push past simply getting an “A” who gain the most value. In fact, those are the students who make a tangible difference in the world.

Don Wettrick: We've had some companies launched from the class. We've had, probably our biggest story of last year, we had two students who connected with a contact we know in Ghana, and they raised money to start a school in Ghana. Not hand over to the Red Cross, but they went out and left. And spent two months in Ghana. Like, that's crazy. And then also got to work with people like Scott Harrison. We've also had our e-sports team that has turned into their own business. They now consult for other schools that want to start e-sport leagues, so they charge now per-hour for other schools wanting to start an e-sports team. Matter of fact, they're working with some people at Atlantic Records, like they're big time now. I'll be asking them for money soon. And then, this is shameless, this is terrible of me, but even like my daughter having this mindset. I'll never forget this, this pivotal moment. We're in the car driving. I speak, here and there. And so one time we had one of those driveables in Illinois, and Ava and I are in the car. And some God awful celebrity gossip minute came on the radio, like what Kim said to Kanye or something stupid. And all of a sudden, before I could turn the channel, Ava goes, "This! This is the problem with my generation and Millennials. This right here." I'm like, "What do you mean?" And she's like, "Dad, more Gen-Z people take life instructions from what, you know, what Ariana Grande said last night and they don't even know who Tim Ferriss is. They don't know who Simon Sinek is." I'm like, "you're right." And she's like, "I swear to God, Gen-Z needs better mentors. That's what they need." And then she pauses and she has that light in her eyes, she's like, "Mentors.. mentors with a 'Z'.. mentors, I should start my own podcast called Mentorz. And then I would have an excuse to interview all these great leaders that mentors should know. It would be my excuse to talk to Tim Ferriss." I'm like, "That's a really good idea." And then her being my daughter, she's like, "And I don't need your help." I'm like, "Why not?" And she's like, "I'm not going to ride off your guests, I'm going to find my own." Her podcast is amazing! So that's shameless because I'm a dad and just promoted my daughter's... but even that moment, on full display was her new way of thinking. Sh was not like that a couple of months ago.

MATT:

So then, how does Wettrick define success for his students?

Don Wettrick: That's the hard part. Sometimes you don't see success for another six months, eight months, a year. I dare say, a lot of times, our kids, our students come back and go, "Oh my gosh, I get it now." That's fine! Some of the measurables are very difficult and I hate the term soft skills because it sound less than. But some of the soft skill, some of the network build - when our students are building this great hub of collaborators, you may not see their product, their LLC for another year or two. But what you do see is them being able to think for themselves. To get out of the group think mentality. That is something we truly love and that we can also be opportunity seekers. That's what I was talking about earlier. That mindset of seekers and peekers not moaners and groaners. I think the biggest waste of human potential right now is that people are online looking for something that our president said that offended them. Or looking for something that Nancy Pelosi said that offended them - both sides. People will spend God knows how many hours looking to be bothered. Meanwhile, our seekers and peekers have this mindset difference of, "I'm going to go out and I'm going to seek opportunities." And when they start to congregate with each other, seekers start... like doers congregate with doers. And then once they're a community they can peek around the corner. They can see what's next. We've had some students pick out trends like 2-years in advance. Like, case and point, two and a half years ago, two of our students said we should get into E-sports game, it's going to be huge. And dag-gon if they weren't right. So the seekers and peekers mentality you do see fairly quickly once you break them out of that matrix, but the hard thing, again, is that sometimes the financial success might not come for another two, three, five years later.

MATT:

That’s all the time we have this week. Come back next week as we continue with part two in this two-part podcast with Don Wettrick, CEO of StartedUp and teacher of the Innovation and Open Sourced Learning at Noblesville High School. If you enjoyed this podcast and want to hear more, hit that subscribe button on your favorite podcast app. While you’re there, leave a review. We would greatly appreciate your feedback to bring you the best content we know how. This has been another episode of the ROI Podcast presented by the Indiana University Kelley School of Business, where we help organizations make better business decisions. I’m your host Matt Martella. See you next week.  

4 steps toward a better social media presence | Ep. 58

As people use more social media platforms, how can our organizations stay relevant online? How do we build a persona that actively engages our followers? On this episode, Associate Faculty in Marketing, Sharmin Kent offers four tips to expand our digital outreach through social media.

----

Do you have a question? Looking to get help on a business decision? Know a great guest for our show? Email roipod@iupui.edu so we can help your organization make better business decisions.

----

Ready to take your next step? Check out if a Kelley MBA is right for you: https://bit.ly/35aeAfZ

----

SHOW NOTES:

MATT:

As we pass the torch to Generation Z, it’s important to understand the magnitude of their influence in our culture. Whether we’re ready or not, they continue their journey through the later years of their teens and into their 20s, creating a profound footprint on society that’s becoming more evident with each trending hashtag or popular YouTube video. So how can our organizations stay relevant in a hyper social society? Let’s get to the podcast…

||ROI PODCAST MUSIC ||

MATT:

Welcome to another episode of the ROI Podcast, presented by the Indiana University Kelley School of Business, where we help organizations make better decisions. I’m your host, Matt Martella alongside Associate Dean of Academic Programs, Phil Powell.

And Phil, we’re at an exciting point in culture, where we see another generation come of age; just as we’ve seen Gen-X & Gen-Y pass the torch, this time it’s Gen-Z’s turn to take over. In fact, the U-S Census says that by 20-20, Gen-Z will make up one-third of the entire U-S population.

PHIL:

And it’s nothing we should fear either. As organizational leaders, we simply need to understand this generation so we can stay relevant. According to the Pew Research Center, Gen-Z uses more social media than all previous generations. They released a study back in February of 2018 that broke down social media use by age group. If we look at their results, adults between ages 18 and 24, 94% use YouTube, 80% use Facebook, 78% use Snapchat, 71% use Instagram and 45% use twitter. This generation leads in all categories, except Facebook, which they’re number 2, just behind Millennials. So as leaders, if we want our organizations to grow, we need to leverage good social media practices to keep up with the next generation.

MATT:

We sat down with Sharmin Kent, Associate Faculty in Marketing, who carries over 15 years of writing experience and has been featured on websites such as The-Atlantic-dot-com, Think-Progress, and Social Media Today. She helps us look at 4 ways our organizations can create a better social media presence.

If we’re going to improve our social media platforms, the first thing our organizations need to do is actively engage our audience.

Sharmin Kent: I would say start by thinking of social media as a "top of the funnel" channel. Social media is where you want to engage people who may not know who you are, but depending on the channel, it can also be a place to actually start a dialogue… That's one of the things I love about social media, because when you get right down to it, no matter what you're buying or selling, it's always a person selling to a person… it’s about getting back to the human element.

PHIL:

JetBlue is a great example of active engagement with their followers. Here’s a massive company that employs over 16,000 people with almost 2 million twitter followers – yet, they find time to quickly respond to their customers, via tweets. Not just to the complaints either. One follower jokingly tweeted at JetBlue that she expects a welcome parade at her gate when she gets home – so what did they do? JetBlue made a few personalized welcome posters with her name, gathered a few employees at the airport, and then snapped a photo that they posted online with the caption, “a little something to remember us by.” That’s just one of numerous stories this company does to make their customers feel valued and appreciated on an individual level.

MATT:

It’s also finding your brand’s voice. Like, what if your brand were embodied into a human? What would your brand look like? Sound like? What’s their personality? Answering these questions help make our brands feel human. If we study the toilet paper company Charmin, we can find they know their “human” identity on twitter. They embrace light-hearted, toilet humor while engaging their audience by asking questions and responding to tweets their followers send them. In fact, Time Magazine named them the sassiest brand of twitter in 2014. One trend Charmin leaders noticed was that 40% of young adults admit to using social media while using the bathroom – mind you, these are only the people who actually admitted it. So in response, they made a hashtag – Tweets from the seat – to specifically engage that audience – which became their most popular hashtag. Charmin states, quote, at our core, Charmin is all about giving people a better bathroom experience and it is important to us that this translates to how we engage with consumers on Twitter – end quote.

So as leaders, we need to treat our social media accounts like the front lobby of our brick and mortar office. Our audience must feel like their voice, in this case tweets, matter, then reach them in a personal way. We need to start real conversations and ask authentic questions – because our followers are, after all, human.

Once we create active engagement with our followers, the second way to having a better social media presence is to study our competition.

Sharmin Kent: Start with your competitors: what are they doing that works, not working, what is your key differentiator, and how can you do it better than them? … Then, try to find something and put together a campaign that fits your products and target audience.

PHIL:

The key is identifying our opportunities that set us apart. If we exam all the social media outlets from our industry competitors, it’s important to study what’s working and what’s missing. Let’s start with what’s working. Don’t simply look at what we think works, look at how their followers respond. Take note of the personal attention they give their consumers. How are their most popular posts worded? How often are these organizations posting on each channel? Can we imagine their brand as an actual human being? Once we figure out their strategy, next we need to focus on what they’re missing or where they can improve. This stage is key because what our competitors lack in their campaign could be our organization’s break-through.

MATT:

So once we actively engage our audience, then study our competitors’ social strategy, the third way we can better our social media presence is don’t be afraid to keep trying new ideas.   

Sharmin Kent: Trial and error is also a big thing because social media changes so often - what works on a Tuesday might not work on a Thursday... The only constant right now is change.

MATT:

Back in early 2016, Hamburger Helper identified their twitter audience, millennial males, and created a persona for their brand – an urban male who likes hip hop music. Even commenting on hip hop news from their company account. Hamburger Helper’s Marketing Communications Manager, Liana Miller told Ad-Week in an interview, in part, quote – we would definitely comment on hip hop news and it caught on because as you can probably tell there aren't a lot of brands commenting or playing in the space. We're one of the few – end quote. Miller goes on to say that as their validity within hip hop news grew, their followers started to push back telling the company that if they knew so much about this music, they should write their own rap. So, Hamburger Helper’s marketing team reached out to up and coming rappers for help because, Miller says – quote - At the end of the day, it's most important to create something worthwhile… The millennials on our team were like, 'Let's make something we would listen to, not some marketing ploy.'" – end quote. The results? When they released this rap on Friday, by Monday, the brand garnered over 432-million social impressions and received over 4-million plays on SoundCloud. This stunt was a massive success. Why? Miller says that’s accredited to being authentic, speaking the language their followers speak and not putting anything down their throats.

PHIL:

Along with trying a new and engaging social media campaign, we need to be timely too. A great example is Oreo’s twitter stunt during the 2013 Super Bowl infamous power outage. Just after the Ravens scored against the 49ers in the 2^nd half, the stadium lights suddenly turned off, stopping play for 34 minutes. Oreo took advantage of this moment. Just 10 minutes after the lights went out, Oreo’s marketing team quickly made a picture of an Oreo cookie surrounded by darkness with text saying – quote – you can still dunk in the dark. The timeliness of this tweet during the blackout had unbelievable success. In fact, this one post received over 16,000 re-tweets and 20,000 Facebook likes. Brands spend millions for 30 seconds of time to get on the Super Bowl. With one quickly edited photo and a timely attention to culture, Oreo hit the spotlight with next to no cost. Again, it’s going back to that human element. Making our followers believe we’re one of their friends and actively engaging within the world around us. 

MATT:

Once we actively engage our followers, study our competitors’ social strategies and then get comfortable trying something new while being timely. The fourth and final way we can better our social media presence is to hire a professional social media expert.

Sharmin Kent: Hire an expert - don't do it yourself, and don't think you can hire an intern over the summer, and because s/he is 20 years old, they know "the Twitters… if you can't hire somebody full-time, then get a consultant… and if you have an executive who's been in business for 30-40 years, but has never touched a Twitter account, that is not the person you want running your social media! Have someone who knows what they're doing, pay them, and invest in the technology to make their job easier.

MATT:

According to the Digital Marketing Institute, 78% of businesses now have teams dedicated to social media. That’s up from 67% back in 2012. And if we want to build a successful brand engagement with Gen-Z, we need to invest into people who know what they’re doing when it comes to social media.

PHIL:

This is a professional sector of business now, whether we want to believe it or not. Professor Kent is right. As an organization, we cannot bring in some intern to build our campaign just because they’re young and get it, or allow an inexperienced team member try to engage our social media audience. This will take careful planning and moving resources around within our organization to give the proper investment this sector needs. If we are to stay relevant in this generational transition, we must work to improve our social media footprint.

||ROI MUSIC PLAYS||

MATT:

So let’s recap. Generation Z is coming of age and taking their place as cultural influencers in a large way – by 20-20 they will make up one-third of the U-S population. So to stay relevant as an organization, we need to improve how we view social media. The first way to having a better social media presence is to actively engage our audience while finding our brand’s personality. How can we take part in the conversation of our followers? JetBlue and Charmin toilet paper offer great examples of social engagement. Second, we need to study what our industry competitors are doing through social media. What’s working for them? What are they missing? Where can they improve? Answering these questions will help us build a successful campaign, potentially moving us ahead of our competitors. Third, we cannot be afraid to try something new while being timely. Hamburger Helper made a mix tape – a food company makes music, think about that. And Oreo stayed current on culture during the Super Bowl. Yet, in trying something new, they both exploded their social engagement. And finally, in order to build a better social media presence, we need to hire professionals and invest resources into this sector of business. Social media takes full-time attention in order give our audience the personal care they desire.

If you want to hear more episodes, search for the ROI Podcast through your favorite Apple or Android device. While you’re there, hit the subscribe button to get the latest podcast directly to your phone. This has been another episode of the ROI Podcast presented by the Indiana University Kelley School of Business where we help organizations make better decisions. I’m your host Matt Martella, signing off until next week.

How to get ahead of the competition | Ep. 57

How does a company create a winning strategy within an industry of corporate giants? Using the story of Moneyball by Michael Lewis, we are exploring proven baseball strategies, using statistics, to help us beat our competition. On this episode, professor Kyle Anderson, steps to the plate and knocks this confusing curveball, out of the park.

----

Do you have a question? Looking to get help on a business decision? Know a great guest for our show? Email roipod@iupui.edu so we can help your organization make better business decisions.

----

Ready to take your next step? Check out if a Kelley MBA is right for you: https://bit.ly/35aeAfZ

----

SHOW NOTES:

This episode of The ROI Podcast is brought to you by the Kelley Evening MBA Program at IUPUI. Ranked number one in Indiana by US News. The Kelley Evening MBA will take your career to the next level—so you can be part of something bigger than yourself, while making a meaningful difference. To find out more, visit https://kelley.iupui.edu/mba/ and take the first step toward lasting career momentum.

PODCAST INTRO:

MATT:

The Oakland A’s became a championship level team in the early 2000’s thanks to a progressive thinker named Billy Beane. In a sport where deep pockets have the greatest advantage for winning, General Manager Billy Beane took a crummy team with little money and made them champions. How? On this episode, we’re sitting down with Professor Kyle Anderson, an economist at the Kelley School of Business, who’s helping us unpack Billy’s moneyball methods, to send our company success out of the park. Let’s get to the podcast…

||ROI MUSIC PLAYS||

MATT:

Welcome to another episode of the ROI Podcast, presented by the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. I’m your host Matt Martella joined by my colleague, Associate Dean of Academic Programs, Phil Powell. And today… oh this topic gets me excited, because today, we are talking baseball. And not just baseball, we’re talking how to take a proven, game winning strategy, and implement the same science into our everyday business.

PHIL:

 

(Remarks)

MATT:

So did you see the movie Moneyball?

PHIL:

(RESPONSE)

MATT:

I just love how it’s based on a true story… obviously dramatized in the movie, yet it was so fun to watch this classic Cinderella story of a washed-up team, adopt a new way of thinking which helped them beat Goliath teams like the New York Yankees and Boston Red Socks.

PHIL:

And for those that don’t know the Moneyball story, let me set the scene…

In 2002, The Oakland A’s had the third-lowest team payroll compared to the rest of the league. Basically, they were a very small fish in an ever-expanding ocean. Their spending cap, during that 2002 season, keep in mind this is the SAME season they went to the playoffs, was only $44-million dollars – which seems like a lot. But compared to the New York Yankees, who had almost 3-times that amount, $120-million to be exact, the A’s could not afford the same level of talent. It doesn’t take a certified accountant to realize, Oakland had a huge disadvantage against their competition.

MATT:

And that’s what pushed Billy to adopt a new way of thinking in terms of how to recruit ball players. He looked at what it takes to win games and narrowed his answer down to a few key statistics – on base percentage and the number of hits per game. While most teams relied on scouting to find talent, Billy used data other teams had access to, yet completely overlooked, to his advantage. This gave the A’s a massive edge against baseball organizations who had deep pockets. So how can we compete against corporate power-houses who clearly have more money to spend? We sat down with Clinical Assistant Professor Kyle Anderson, an economist and avid sports fan here at Kelley, who’s love for the game offers great business practices. The main take-away is we have to know a basic level of statistics within our organization, so we can create the best solution for the problems facing our company.

Kyle Anderson:

Sports are great because there are so many statistics. Everything is available, right? And people are out there tracking it. But now in this day and age, we're tracking a lot of data and a lot of statistics about our businesses. So it just takes a mindset of, "let's go look at that data and see what we can get out of it." Can we find some valuable information and maybe compare something and really try and see what's going on. 

MATT:

This is a tough subject for me because I’m not a numbers guy. I did not do well in stats class, and I do not like spreadsheets. But, I can confidently say, after sitting down with Kyle, I quickly realized none of my qualifications… or really, lack there of, matter. Within business, I can ask a question, then work within my team to get the data needed. What’s great is, it’s not complicated. In fact, we don’t need anything other than a willingness to start somewhere.

Kyle Anderson:

And the answer is almost always, start simple. I think one of the things managers can do is think in terms of experiments. Go back to your eighth grade science class, right? There are "A" conditions and there are "B" conditions. And if you want data, sometimes you have to create an experiment to help you get that data that's going to help you make a decision. It's a very simple approach… Start thinking about, not only what data can I collect, but how can I set up little experiments, little A-B tests, and find out which one works best. And I think, especially in technology, that's becoming easier and easier to do that. And it's so valuable. And it's one of the best things a manager can do.

MATT:

So number one, we have to be willing to start, and start somewhere small. Before Billy Beane could build his baseball empire, he had to start looking for answers that were not very obvious at the time. He already knew he could not afford the best talent, so he had to find his competitive edge. And he did, but it started with experimenting, just like Kyle suggests. Create little experiments to see what A vs B tests we can try, that point us toward the right decision. Kyle also said that of course there is a whole science to make sure your trials are balanced and fair, but do not let that discourage you from taking the first step of trying in the first place – do something two different ways and see what works best.

PHIL:

For example, let’s say I’m a business trying to grow my client base, yet not sure about how to measure a successful marketing campaign, I want to make it super basic. Let’s say, as a company, I’m trying to increase customer engagement on our website. Here’s a great little experiment to try – using an email marketing campaign, create two different designs. One email promotion could be a more conservative design, maybe have more info about your company than normal, or a current template you have used in the past. For the second design, just go for it. Make it edgy, simple, modern, brief, or whatever you have been afraid to try before. Once you have your designs, send one email to half of your clients, and the other design to the remaining group. After a few weeks, monitor the progress. Ask yourself, is there a trend that suggests one design received more clicks than the other?  If so, as a leader in your organization, you now know improvements to implement that could help your company grow. And if not, pat yourself on the back because growing as a leader requires getting it wrong sometimes.

Kyle Anderson:

If you're not out there failing as a company, then you're probably not out there trying enough things. Right? You're not playing with a new strategy. Obviously, you want to fail small, you don't want to risk the whole company, but if you're not out there trying new things, and occasionally failing, or more often than not failing, you're probably not being aggressive enough. 

MATT:

The second take away is be ready to fail at times, because as Kyle said, this is a sign of progress. It’s funny because every great story requires overcoming a struggle. And I think we forget that sometimes. Let’s jump out of baseball real quick and look at Bill Gates, before computers became our livelihood. In 1980, Gates’s mission for Microsoft was, “A computer on every desk and in every home.” A ludacris idea when you consider two things - how expensive these machines were during their inception and even greater, a consumer who did not see the need for having a computer at home. In 1981, the IBM Personal Computer carried a $1,500 price tag… when you take inflation into account, it would cost us $4,100 today. Yet, when we jump back to today, what do we see?

PHIL:

We not only see a computer in every home and on every desk, we see multiple computing devices in every home and on every desk. They run our cars, our phones… heck they even have computers inside refrigerators now that connect to Wi-Fi. In fact, the Moneyball story would not exist without computers crunching his data. There’s an entire industry in our economy solely based on computers. But at the start, Gates had the world against him, and because he grew in failure, his vision for the world became a quantifiable reality.

MATT:

And that brings us to our third take-away – when we find our competitive edge after embracing statistical data, keep going. Don’t stop. Keep revisiting the numbers, keep experimenting because eventually, our competitors will not only catch up with us, they’re going to find their own advantage and grow past our organization.

Kyle Anderson:

I think it's a perfect parable for business. Which is, if you start doing things better, that's going to give you a competitive advantage, but it's probably not going to last very long. And the worst think Billy Bean ever did, I think, was let Michael Lewis come in and tell his story because eventually everyone saw that success and was able to copy it. And it really took away that competitive advantage. And now he's got to be looking for something else. They all are looking for a way to outperform the competition. 

PHIL:

There was a long streak where the Oakland A’s held the advantage because they found, and perfected, a new way of building a team. However, other ball clubs started to take notice. Organizations like the New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs and the Boston Red Socks started to see the science behind Billy’s success and copied it. What happened? The Oakland A’s lost their competitive edge, ultimately allowing their competition to go further. The same evolution happens in business, it’s just a little less visible. So as business leaders, adopting an attitude of adaptability will help us keep up with our ever changing industries. And it’s that evolution which keeps our economy alive.

Kyle Anderson:

The story on our economic history in this country is companies rising and falling. Because it's very hard for large and confident firms with dominant market share to make those aggressive changes that you need to stay ahead. So it's the large slow businesses that get comfortable, aren't able to change and it's all the young ones at their heels. And that's just a natural evolution, and it's great for our economy. It's great for consumers, it gives us lots of choices. So it's a beneficial part of capitalism. 

MATT:

Finally, as our excitement of data collection grows – because eventually we’ll love the quantifiable answers it brings, the fourth change we must make to beat our competition is balance. We must balance the use of data with industry experience. Data by itself can only get us so far, just as solely relying on experience will keep us from growing. Yet, if we can find a way to marry the two, we will make better decisions as leaders. Now, the movie version of Moneyball did a horrible job showing this. In the movie, Billy Beane – played by Brad Pitt – ignored his baseball scouts and only used data to find these mis-fit players. So we have to explore the book to find the actual story. Here we find that Beane leveraged the input from his scouts AND his data to make the best choice available, ultimately building a team able to take down ball clubs, like the Yankees, with deep pockets. Kyle, on the other hand, learned this lesson well before Moneyball was released.

Kyle Anderson:

I got my MBA from Kelley, and I got into a job where I was essentially working as the CFO for a relatively small business. It was a truck dealership and the dealer had owned the business for 30 or 40 years. And I would come in with my spreadsheets and we were talking about different ways of making decisions. He didn't even have a computer on his desk. Right? And I'm in here with all my spreadsheets. And I always thought that, "Oh, my way is better, right? I've got analytics, I've got data." Well he had 40 years of industry experience. A couple of spreadsheets are not going to give you insight that 40 years can do. Now, I think that if you blend those together, you're going to make better decisions than either having just data or just experience. So I think that a lot of the story, comes back to the moneyball, is you can't just think that analytics are going to give you the answer or you can collect some data and then do whatever the data tells you to do. You have to have your expertise in that industry and that experience is certainly valued and it should never be dismissed.

||MUSIC PLAYS||

PHIL:

And that is how Moneyball became a success story. Billy Beane married both the baseball stats all other teams overlooked, with the knowledge and insight of his scouts – who carried the industry experience. By asking the right questions, experimenting in his decisions, and working through his failure, the Oakland A’s rose to the top of the league and ultimately changed how baseball teams would build their empires today.

||ROI MUSIC PLAYS||

MATT:

So let’s recap. The Oakland A’s discovered a winning strategy while being faced with a major disadvantage – they were completely under-funded compared to the rest of the league. However, that did not stop them from defeating their Goliath’s and rising to the top. If we want our companies to beat industry giants, we need to make four changes and it all starts with data. First, we must be willing to start. Start with simple A-B tests that gives quantifiable answers. Don’t simply collect data to have, either. Ask yourself, “What questions do I need to answer and what data do I need to help answer that question.” Second, be ready to fail at times. The entire computer industry was birthed on the backs of failure – yet it was the lessons they brought that made Bill Gates an industry giant. Third, when we find a winning strategy, keep going. Do not get comfortable because eventually, our competition will find a strategy that will beat ours. Finally, discover a balance of leveraging data and asking our industry experts. Data will have anomalies and experts will miss something important. So if we can bring both to the table, as leaders, we will make the best decision possible.

As always, thank you Phil, and thanks for listening. This has been another episode of the ROI Podcast presented by the Indiana University Kelley School of Business.

How to market your brand like a champion | Ep. 56

How can the Chicago Bears, a historically losing team, draw such a large crowd to their games? Why is there a line out the door, in the middle of an afternoon, at Apple Stores? On this episode, Associate Vice Chancellor, Jay Gladden gives us an inside look at how major sports teams and retail chains create winning marketing strategies.

----

Do you have a question? Looking to get help on a business decision? Know a great guest for our show? Email roipod@iupui.edu so we can help your organization make better business decisions.

----

Ready to take your next step? Check out if a Kelley MBA is right for you: https://bit.ly/35aeAfZ

----

Show Notes:

This episode of The ROI Podcast is brought to you by the Kelley Evening MBA Program at IUPUI. The Kelley Evening MBA will take your career to the next level—so you can be part of something bigger than yourself, while making a meaningful difference. To find out more, visit https://kelley.iupui.edu/programs/evening-mba/ and take the first step toward lasting career momentum.

PODCAST INTRO:

MATT:

The 2018 school season is officially underway. In honor of our kids in the class, we’re going back to school with Marketing Expert, Professor Jay Gladden who’s re-teaching us simple techniques so we can market our brand like a champion. Let’s get to the podcast…

||ROI PODCAST MUSIC||

MATT:

Welcome to another episode of the ROI Podcast presented by the Indiana University Kelley School of Business, I’m your host, Matt Martella, alongside the one and only, Associate Dean of Academic Programs, Phil Powell.

On this episode, we’re sitting down with Associate Vice Chancellor and Professor at IUPUI, Jay Gladden who holds a Ph. D in sports management. He’s done marketing research for Major League Soccer, the NCAA, and the United States Figure Skating Association. He’s also a board member for Visit Indy and a member of the Indiana Sports Corporation President’s Council.

PHIL:

(Remarks about Jay)

MATT:

Well today, Jay’s going to help us unpack some simple marketing tips – using both sports teams and retail examples. The principles seem elementary, yet it’s really good to get back to basics because though they’re simple to hear, they can be tough to master. The first tip to marketing like a champion is to identify a need in the marketplace, at your company, or within your organization. This basic business principle is the root for every major company success.

Jay Gladden: there's a company in Indianapolis that was created because someone [there] said [they] didn't have the technology tool to manage [their] volunteers for this event. A woman named Florie Mae said that she'd take a stab at doing that and created this technology tool, didn't think it was going anywhere, and generically called it The Registration System. She will honestly tell you that to this day, they put a generic name on it because they thought they were just doing it in the instance for Indiana Sports Corporation. That has become a tool that's very commonplace, a market leader for volunteer management systems, particularly for sporting events. So it's a really good example of serendipity of a very viable business is built by identifying a need. 

PHIL:

(REMARKS/EXAMPLE)

MATT:

The second marketing tip Jay suggests is, create an experience around your product or solution to the need you’ve identified.

Jay Gladden: You know, Apple stores fascinate me. You can get Apple products other places, but any time you go to an Apple store, there's a line out the door in the middle of the day. And before that it was Nike stores. And I know, on good authority, that Nike stores do not make money. They just don't. It's not where the Nike stuff is bought. It's really a brand tool, it's an experience, it creates that connection between the consumer and the brand. What does it symbolizes about you and how it fits into people's identities.

PHIL:

People don’t buy an iPhone because it makes a phone call because there are many qualified companies that make the same kind of device. They buy the experience Apple created around that device. (Talk about the defining your why)

MATT:

The third tip to better marketing is to control that experience – don’t simply market off its success, market to the experience around your brand.

Take the Indianapolis Indians for example. The simple, logical approach is create a campaign around the actual game of baseball, right? But they don’t. So what would their crowds look like if they simply marketed the baseball game? Or a whole campaign around their star player? It wouldn’t work! Why? Because they cannot control when a player will get called up to the majors just as much as they cannot determine if they’ll win that night. So they do things like Friday night fireworks, kids can run the bases, or discounted food – those are controllable elements. All sports teams take inventory of the controllable things surrounding the viewing experience and leverage those for marketing their brand.

Jay Gladden: And that's why the Indians are a really great example because when you go to a minor league baseball game, the outcome really is secondary. You're going because you want to be outside, probably with a group of people, or your family, it's affordable, it's friendly, it's clean, it's fun, right? Those things you can control.

PHIL:

Again, it’s doing things I have a direct influence over and creating a marketing campaign around it.

MATT:

And the proof is in the pudding. Take the Chicago Cubs as another example. Before they won the World Series in 2016, their brand was associated with defeat. So how can a historically losing team draw such a massive fan base to each game?

Jay Gladden: And I was particularly fascinated with how the Chicago Cubs could turn out large crowds, despite numerous years of losing. Yet, people turned out at Wrigley. And people would say, "there was a party at Wrigley Field and a baseball game broke out." Which jokingly, I think, very nicely summarizes the experience. But you started to see just the elements of building a brand. It's not just what happens on the field, it is the place where it happens and what you create with that place. 

PHIL:

(REACTION/WEIGH IN)

MATT:

So let’s recap. Using Jay’s incredible knowledge within sports marketing, there are 3 simple tips we can adopt in order to market like a champion. First, we must identify a need in the marketplace, at our company, or within our organization. This is the root for every success story inside business. Second, create an experience around the product or solution that addresses the need we’ve identified. This is Apple’s strategy that makes their products so revered within our culture. We don’t just buy an iPhone, we buy what an iPhone symbolizes. And finally, control that user experience, don’t just market the product itself or the success it brings. The Cubs cannot market success when their team is not winning – they control our experience by the elements surrounding the game, which allow us to have a great time, no matter the outcome.

If you enjoyed this episode and would like to hear more, head over to iTunes and hit subscribe. While you’re there, tell us how we’re doing. We really appreciate your feedback.

 

Three improvements Indianapolis can make to claim Amazon’s second headquarters | Ep. 55

There's a lot of buzz around the country, wondering where Amazon will build it's second headquarters. Many cities, including Indianapolis, are competing for the great honor, but only one will claim the prize. On this episode, we sat down with Associate Faculty in Real Estate, John Snell, MBA'77, who helps us unlock three improvements Indianapolis can make to bring Amazon to the Circle City.

----

Do you have a question? Looking to get help on a business decision? Know a great guest for our show? Email roipod@iupui.edu so we can help your organization make better business decisions.

----

Ready to take your next step? Check out if a Kelley MBA is right for you: https://bit.ly/35aeAfZ

----

Show Notes:

Matt:

Amazon continues their search to build their five-billion dollar, second headquarters facility – a business venture that brings tons of excitement within the Indianapolis community. Back in January of this year, Amazon announced that Indianapolis was one of 20 cities, carrying the potential to host the massive e-commerce and tech headquarters. So what does this city need to change in order to make Amazon a home? On this episode, we’re going to explore three improvements Indy can make to claim Amazon’s 2^nd headquarters. Let’s get to the podcast…

||MUSIC PLAYS||

Matt:

Welcome to another episode of the ROI Podcast, presented by the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. I’m your host, Matt Martella alongside my pal, Associate Dean of Academic Programs, Phil Powell. Real quick, before we jump into our topic today, I want to say congrats to you Phil and a HUGE thank you to our listeners - this past weekend, the ROI Podcast hit a major milestone. We are officially over the 10,000 download mark since this podcast first aired back in April of 2017!

Phil:

(Remarks)

Matt:

And again, this would not be possible without you, our listeners. So from the bottom of our hearts, thank you! And as this show grows, we would love your feedback. So head to our podcast on iTunes and leave a review! Rate our show, tell us what you enjoy or leave a topic of interest you want us to explore because at the end of the day, it’s all about you – our audience.

Okay Phil, as we know, there’s still a lot of anticipation for many major cities in the US, wondering where Amazon will call its second home. Among cities like Denver, Chicago, New York and Atlanta – we find that Indianapolis has also made the short list of “finalists,” so to speak.

Phil:

And though it may be a surprise to many around the country, Indy offers some great amenities to a company like Amazon. We’re centrally located in the country with quick access to major markets like Chicago, Detroit, Columbus, St. Louis and Nashville, we have a major airport close by that houses the 2^nd largest FedEx hub in the country, and our tech industry has experienced major growth – largely attributed to the big tech players who’ve made Indy home; companies like SalesForce, Angie’s List, and Interactive Intelligence, to name a few. So we find that Indiana has the potential already, but with these other great cities in the running, there’s improvements to be made.

Matt:

And that raises the question, what do we need to do, as a city, to acquire Amazon H-Q two? We sat down with one of our own faculty members, John Snell, who carries over 37 years teaching experience at the IU Kelley School of Business and is the owner and president of Snell Real Estate Evaluation Company - a commercial real estate consulting, appraisal, and brokerage firm. He helped us analyze commercial real estate in Indianapolis that could hold the key to make this city beat the rest.

The first improvement Indianapolis needs to make, according to John, is we need to increase the number of rental properties downtown. According to the U-S Census, between 2011 and 2016, Indianapolis has seen the demand for rental housing surpass the demand of those looking to buy a home. In fact, since 2011, as the renter occupied housing, here in Indy, increased by just over 1% while owner occupied housing went the other direction, shrinking by the same amount. So we’re seeing a trend that’s not just here, but across many Mid-west cities, like Toledo and Cleveland. People would rather rent than buy a house inside city limits. And John Snell knows why…

John Snell: The Millennials have, by far, you know, to a greater extent selected rental versus owner-occupancy. So we have a far lower supply of homes, single-family, on the market and that's changed the urban setting as well... I can live downtown, work downtown, you know, I can maybe not even have a car if I chose not to, now in this city. And you can stay in that environment. So those are huge changes to real estate.

Phil:

And there are a number of reasons why we’re seeing the Millennial Generation prefer renting versus buying a home. One is that this generation carries the largest amount of student debt then previous generations. According to the Federal Reserve, at the end of the first quarter there was $1.44 trillion in outstanding student loans. It’s hard to add a $150,000 mortgage on top of a $40,000 student loan. Yet, that does not fully explain why. According to an article posted by the City Journal, the demand to live downtown is rising globally and the technology industry is a major contributing factor. According to Mario Polese from the City Journal, well-paying jobs are making their way back to the city. So mix that into the social scene and Mario says people want to be able to walk across the street to get a coffee or sandwich at midnight or a beer around noon at the pub next door – without having a commute. It’s the access to these amenities that’s also driving the demand of downtown living.

Matt:

And that leads us to the second thing Indianapolis can do to claim Amazon’s second headquarters – Indy needs to increase the lifestyle services available to downtown residents.

John Snell: So as tech looks at the kind of space they want and, you know, the kind of space they want to be housed in, the market has had to completely change, you know, what they offer, what they provide. And then as those new users come in, they tend to be more progressive. They tend to be younger and they have a different life-style. They are very much more likely to live urban. So it's amazing what the domino effect can look like from just the seed of your question. How much does that change? It changes everything.

Matt::

Going back to your point, it seems as though people who come downtown want access to variety. Just working downtown, how valuable is it to have 30 different restaurants within a few miles of your office?

Phil:

(Response)

Matt:

And even though we have major attractions like the Colts, Pacers, major concerts, and an active social scene – there are problems the city needs to address to keep young professionals downtown the majority of their career.

John Snell: I don't think a city can sustain itself, sustain this level of growth if you grow out of it by the time you're 28 or 30 and move away or move to the burbs.

In our interview, John made reference to education as one major improvement – how the Indianapolis Public School district needs to work on keeping younger, higher paid families from making an exodus to the suburbs. Yet, it’s not just Indy, inner city schools across the country have a hard time competing with suburban districts. According to the Indiana Department of Education, IPS received a much lower rating than the suburban districts surrounding the city. So our urban community needs to work with the school board to help build an attractive education system for both teachers and students. As these younger professionals settle down to raise families, it’s no longer the question of what hot dog stand is open at 3-AM, but it’s what school will set my kid up for the most success?

Phil:

Of course, there’s more than simply education to improve upon. John says the ease of access to grocery stores and retail shops also play a big factor for keeping families downtown.

John Snell: So for example, just a grocery store in downtown Indianapolis is really something we've only had significantly for the last five years. It's been unusual. We don't have a growing retail. Circle Center Mall has been kind of suffering. There's still a lot you look at and say there's a lot that needs to get better. And it's probably services and just dealing with, can you sustain that core into a more diverse demographic market.

Phil:

Improvement is the key here, and as a city, we’re moving in the right direction. Just this past February, the Indianapolis Business Journal published an article titled, “Visit Indy reports sixth straight year of rising visitor spending.” According to Visit Indy, the economic impact of visitors in 2016 was $5.2 billion dollars. That’s up from $4.9 billion made in 2015. So we are making downtown fun. If we can blend the attractions for guests and retail for permanent residents, we will discover a sustainable urban environment that keeps families from leaving.

Matt:

Finally, the third improvement Indianapolis can make to give Amazon a second home is market to a new employee talent pool. Since there is a rise in people moving to downtown environments, according to the U-S Census, why not leverage that in marketing campaigns? Make downtown feel more attractive to the younger generation.

John Snell: I think we used to be a much less dynamic place to live. So whether it's the continued expansion of the sports franchises, but the liveliness of downtown, the fact that it's a more livable urban environment, I think it's now made us more competitive for younger talent. And I think bringing younger talent into a market changes the city. And all of a sudden, it attracts users like the Amazon interest in Indianapolis, would be based upon being able to attract that employment base.

Phil:

And it’s the younger generation that brings life to a city because they’re more inclined to stay out until midnight at the restaurants or take the risk of starting a trendy boutique in a re-developing part of the city. It’s also this generation that will take over as executives and managers – which in turn will change how business is even done in the long run. Attracting this young talent to the city gives major companies, like Amazon, a large talent pool they can build their company on. Indianapolis has a big advantage because we have such a close proximity to major universities, like IU, Purdue, Butler and Notre Dame, just to name a few. All of which produce some of the brightest minds in the country. So we need to draw that talent here, in the city so Amazon will draw to us.

||MUSIC PLAYS||

Matt:

So let’s recap. Amazon is on the hunt for a second headquarter location and Indianapolis is on their list. Each city offers great amenities, however at the end of the day, only one can house the multi-billion dollar e-commerce giant. If Indy is going to be that city, there are three improvements we must make. First, we need to increase the number of rental spaces available downtown. The demand for urban rental property is rising. People want work and social activities in close proximity, without commuting. Second, we need to continue making improvements to lifestyle services available to downtown residents from education to retail in order to keep families from making an exodus to the suburbs. Finally, we need to continue to leverage the demand for downtown living – create marketing campaigns that draw the brightest minds to the circle city; ultimately giving Amazon the best pool of talent to grow their organization.

As always, thank you Phil and thanks for listening to the ROI Podcast, presented by the IU Kelley School of Business. I’m your host Matt Martella, see you next time.

|| MUSIC FADES ||

Three tips to help land that C-suite position | Ep. 54

How many times do we feel like we're "stuck" in our career? Or as though our personal growth has plateaued? On this episode, we spoke with Traci Dolan who shares her success as the former CFO of ExactTarget. She offers three, practical tips to launch your career to the next level.

----

Do you have a question? Looking to get help on a business decision? Know a great guest for our show? Email roipod@iupui.edu so we can help your organization make better business decisions.

----

Ready to take your next step? Check out if a Kelley MBA is right for you: https://bit.ly/35aeAfZ

----

Show Notes:

MATT:

As we approach the 10-year mark since the 2008 financial collapse - as a global market, we’re still picking up the pieces. However, the economic comeback we’re seeing across the United States shows favorable conditions for both new business creation and corporate development - which in turn means better chances for your start-up business’s success or that big promotion. On this episode, we’re talking with a CFO who offers some practical tips for professional growth. The sun is rising on our financial landscape. How will we make the most of it? Let’s get to the podcast.

(The ROI Podcast Music)

MATT:

Good morning, and welcome to another episode of the ROI Podcast presented by the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. I’m your host, Matt Martella, broadcasting from the downtown Indianapolis campus with my special guest, associate dean of academic programs, Phil Powell. Hey Phil…

MATT:

Now Phil, we’re only a few months away from the 10 year mark since the horrible 2008 financial collapse, that many experts are calling the worst implosion the global market experienced since the Great Depression… leaving so many families in turmoil and creating a highly conservative approach to the way both businesses and families spend their money. However, the global markets over the past few years indicate a sort of “bounce back.”

PHIL:

You’re right! The confidence people have in the economy in recent years is really reflected in the strength of our current global market. And that’s breathing new life into the start-up business environment as well as expansion and growth in corporations. Simply look at the recent trends. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, start-up firms were at an all-time low in 2010 following the collapse. Jump to 20-17 and we saw the number of new business creations grow by close to 100-thousand since 2010. Just last year, start-ups gained 1.7 million jobs since 2016... and the growth seems to continue.

MATT:

And major corporations seem to be reaping the benefits too. In fact the U-S Bureau of Economic Analysis are calling the first quarter of 20-18, just the first quarter ALONE, an all-time high for corporate profits since 1950. U-S corporations have profited close to 1-hundred-ninety billion dollars this year. That’s some serious spending power if you’re sitting in the executive suite to grow your corporation.

PHIL:

And this should also give those of us who have been kicking the bucket around, waiting for the right time to start a business some hope and encouragement to finally take the leap.

MATT:

Let’s talk about that for a moment. Following the 2008 financial collapse, we experienced a MAJOR slow-down in small business creation. In fact, new business start-ups fell by almost one-hundred-50-thousand, going from just over 6-hundred-thousand new businesses in 2006 to barely crossing the 4-hundred-fifty-thousand mark in 2014, according to the U-S Census. What do potential entrepreneurs need to do to overcome their fear and take advantage of this incredible economic growth?

PHIL:

Well it’s simple to hear, but hard to implement. The bottom line is they need to be confident. They need to trust the economic trends and plug themselves into this financial growth our country is experiencing. Starting a business will always come with uncertainty, fear of the unknown, and will most definitely push a new business owner’s comfort-level, no matter how the market is doing. But seeing how far we’ve come since 2008, I feel if there was ever a time to take that chance for your new business, that time is now.

MATT:

One of our marketing professors, Kim Saxton, sat down for an interview with former CFO of ExactTarget, Traci Dolan, who most certainly can speak about pushing personal comfort levels. Not only did she rise to the CFO of a tech company WITHOUT a technology background, but as CFO of a different company, she led the decision to take a public company private. That alone would create a huge level of uncertainty. She says that no matter where we are, whether we’re about to start a business or on the tip of the spear for making uncomfortable business decisions that ultimately could affect our career, we have to be comfortable BEING uncomfortable.

Traci Dolan: “You can't be paralyzed by fear - my greatest achievements in my professional career have been because I put myself out there a little bit, outside of my comfort zone, either applying for a job that I really didn't know if I was qualified for, or taking the lead on some project that I might've not had the skill-set and knowing it wasn't going to be perfect. I often see people struggle with decision-making because they're fearful of making a mistake, and it's paralysis to an organization if that happens.”

PHIL:

This is not simply for those of us trying to start our own business either - this can apply to those of us in the corporate world who have sites on upper management positions, director roles, or even the big “C-level” office. Those looking to grow themselves in the professional world have to constantly push their comfort levels. I’m not saying we make radical decisions without doing our research first, but we cannot expect to grow ourselves as a corporate professional OR an entrepreneur by staying complacent. If we’re struggling with complacency and don’t know what to do, the best advice I can offer is find those people who have succeeded. We have to surround ourselves with those who have our dream jobs, our dream business, or are successful in an area we want to succeed. Take them out to coffee and simply listen. Find out their personal habits, see what they’re reading, ask them what their success looks like, ask them about their failures, but more importantly, ask them how they overcame defeat. This will help us lay down tracks for our own professional goals without having to “re-invent the wheel” so to speak.

MATT:

And if we’re in a position that affords us the power to hire, Traci says to surround ourselves with the best, then GET OUT of their way.

Traci Dolan: “Hire people smarter than yourself, let them grow and develop, and hopefully [they'll] take the role you were sitting in so you can keep growing too. Often times people are less inclined to do that, they're either micromanaging or they're somewhat concerned that someone's going to "up-stage' them - I think that's [the] absolute wrong way to look at it. By bringing on the smartest people you can find and actually trying to fill the gaps that you yourself don't possess is the greatest way to keep growing, developing, and ending up in the C-suite.”

MATT:

The beauty of these principles Traci shares is they’re scalable for entrepreneurs and corporate professionals. Because no matter what our title or where we fall in the corporate chain, we will have to make decisions. Some decisions will affect our organization, but MOST of the decisions we make will affect us personally.

PHIL:

That’s a good point. Because even unmade decisions – decisions we are afraid to make or decisions we chose to avoid, are in fact a decision. In those moments, no decision BECOMES our decision. And people around us see that. And a lot of that stems simply from a fear of failure. As American’s, we have a culture of “winners” and “losers”. If our decision succeeds, we turn a huge profit, hire the perfect candidate, or get ahead of our competitors, we’re a winner. Yet, if we fail, we decide that person doesn’t fit our company’s morals, lose short-term profit, or get some bad press, we become a “loser”. And that’s what business leaders have a hard time navigating through - they simply don’t know how to let go of that winner/loser mentality.

MATT:

And for many, it’s that fear of being viewed as a “loser” that prevents people from even trying in order to stay in their comfort bubble. But that view has to change because no matter what, life always guarantees us failures. It’s not about winning or losing in business, it’s about growing or stagnating. If Traci let her failures define her, I would bet my money that she would simply be crunching numbers as a public accountant still. However, she took a different approach when it came to failures…

Traci Dolan: “I’m sure my life is full of failures, but I just kind of dust myself off and don’t look at them as that way. I look at them with learning because tomorrow I'm going to fail at something - I'm not sure what it'll be, but it won't be what I failed at today because I will have learned and picked myself up to keep going.”

MATT:

And what better example of how to navigate through failure then watching Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, deal with some poor business choices recently. Let’s study Facebook for a moment. Here we have a multi-billion dollar company, make some poor business choices that affect us, the consumer, on a very personal level. We’re talking about a lot of people’s personal information not valued the way we would expect. We even find Zuckerberg having to testify before Congress, gaining the attention of major national media outlets. For most, this would destroy their reputation, profits, and potentially their company. And who knows, this could still blow up in their face, but at the moment, their stock price indicates quite the opposite. So, what if Zuckerberg let fear overtake how he leads? What if he let the failures or his anxiety cripple his decision making process?

PHIL:

It would be corporate suicide. Despite all that’s still stacked against the future of Facebook, they’re essentially turning their lemons into lemonade. Sure it’s coming with a high financial price tag - and I guarantee Zuckerberg feels the anxiety of his decisions, especially with the microscopic scrutiny of the media. But the BIG take-away is, he’s still making decisions and moving forward. And even though they may not all be the right ones to make, the fact that they’re made gives investors the confidence they need to put their money back into stocks. Despite their bad press, they closed at $207.23 per share on July 16^th. That’s the highest they’ve been since they went public! So if you’re one to become overwhelmed with anxiety in the midst of making decisions, one practice to build your confidence is to know what’s going on in your department or your organization as soon as possible and make the best choice with what is known.

 Traci Dolan: “I think the sooner I can come up to speed on what's going on in the organization, the more effective a decision-maker I will be. I haven't been mentored to do that, per se, but just by career history, it's just evolved.”

PHIL:

Fear of failure and the anxiety that comes with decision-making put serious growth stoppers in our path to professional success. We have to remember that these emotions are normal for everyone. What separates those who are successful from those you are stuck are, they learn how to overcome them instead of being overcome by their emotions.

MATT:

Finally, it’s extremely important that we don’t limit ourselves by saying it cannot be done. In order to be a leading business owner or a top-level executive, we have to let go of the “we can’t do this” mentality. Traci quickly learned her focus as a public accountant had to expand past the numbers and spreadsheets. This shift in seeing the big picture and how to make uncomfortable choices ultimately landed her the coveted “C-Level” position.

 Traci Dolan: “What becomes really important is being a strategic business partner - once you establish yourself as that, and understanding the business and trying to find ways to say yes so that the answer isn't, "No, you can't do it," but it's, "No, you can't do that, but let's figure out how we can do this so that it's a win for the business.” —BUTT TO — “In fact, if you're not working with the business and you're sitting in your office cranking on spreadsheets, pretty soon no one is going to want to talk to you, and you've lost your strategic value to the company.”

|| MUSIC PLAYS ||

MATT:

So let’s recap. The key is to start. Start the business, start learning your organization, start finding a mentor, or start embracing the uncomfortable growth necessary for success. Next it’s about shifting our perspective of failure - whether in fear of failure or anxiety of decision-making - we have to see failure as fertile grounds for personal growth. Finally, we CANNOT limit ourselves with a “can’t do” attitude. We have to figure out ways to make it work so our business and we ultimately succeed.

|| MUSIC PLAYS ||

MATT:

Thanks for tuning in this week. As always, thank you Phil for being here today. If you enjoyed this podcast and want to discover more, check out our archived episodes and don’t forget to subscribe. While you’re there, tell us what topics you would like to hear, leave a review, or just say hi. I’m Matt Martella and this has been another edition of ROI Podcast presented by the Indiana University Kelley School of Business.

|| MUSIC FADES OUT ||

Shane Simmons says farewell | Ep. 53

It's with heavy hearts we say farewell to Shane Simmons, host of the ROI Podcast and warmly welcome Matt Martella to take his place. Shane is embarking on a new adventure as a start-up entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Crimson Media Group, a medical marketing agency. Shane pioneered the ROI Podcast in April 2017, along with Associate Dean of Acedemic Programs, Phil Powell. Together they have produced more than 50 episodes with a wide range of guests, including Gov. Eric Holcomb. Each episode is geared toward leadership development, entrepreneurship, time management, and other great topics for personal growth. As we say farewell to Shane, we would also like to welcome our new host, Matt Martella. Matt received his bachelor's degree in journalism from Grand Valley State University and carries close to 5 years of professional journalism experience.

----

Do you have a question? Looking to get help on a business decision? Know a great guest for our show? Email roipod@iupui.edu so we can help your organization make better business decisions.

----

Ready to take your next step? Check out if a Kelley MBA is right for you: https://bit.ly/35aeAfZ

How this Indianapolis company keeps a 90 percent employee retention rate | Ep. 52

In today's economy, employees switch jobs at a much faster rate than their parents and grandparents. For companies to retain their employees, they have to get creative. In this episode of The ROI Podcast, Mike Petrie breaks down how Merchants Bank of Indiana has kept a 90%+ employee retention rate.

----

Do you have a question? Looking to get help on a business decision? Know a great guest for our show? Email roipod@iupui.edu so we can help your organization make better business decisions.

----

Ready to take your next step? Check out if a Kelley MBA is right for you: https://bit.ly/35aeAfZ

----

Show Notes:

Shane: Hello all of you ROI Podcast listeners! Let me ask you something, how many jobs have you had in your lifetime? If you’re a college graduate, how many jobs have you held since graduating college? Well, especially for us millennials and gen z’ers, the data shows that we change jobs much more frequently than say the baby boomer generation… And we’ve talked about this in previous episodes of the podcast. So if you’re a manager in a company – or you’re aspiring to take-on a leadership role – keeping your employees is going to be a real challenge for you. And today, you’re going to hear from someone who’s mastered this – and we’ll reveal what his secret is to keeping his employee retention rate above 90 percent! Let’s start the show!

(ROI Podcast Intro Music)

Shane: Alright everyone – welcome back. I’m Shane Simmons and we are pumped that you are here listening to The ROI Podcast presented by the Kelley School of Business on the IUPUI Campus in downtown Indianapolis. So, as you picked up from our introduction, we’re talking about employee retention, especially as you begin to see major growth in a company and your human capital suddenly becomes a huge expense when you have to find replacements for those who may have moved on. We talked about this issue before with one of our previous guests, Val Grubb, who put it like this.

Val Grubb: As a manager, you've got to be better at your game. You've got to be much more about goal setting, you're really got to coach and provide that feedback, and really allow flexibility at the office.

Shane: We’ve learned through these 50+ interviews we’ve done that people are so valuable – the best asset to the company. For you longtime ROI listeners, you may remember Randy Stocklin, the CEO of an e-commerce business in Greenwood, Indiana talk about the value of people.

Randy Stocklin: We quickly learned that people make or break a business. For us, our business has always been very people-centric, one of our core values is our people matter most.

Shane: People are switching jobs quickly. How do you keep them in your organization and avoid losing them to other businesses?

Mike Petrie The biggest thing is providing a vision for people to follow because people need to know where they're going.

Shane: That was Mike Petrie, Director, Chairman, and CEO of Merchants Bank of Indiana, which holds more than $3.7 Billion in assets and is consistently listed as one of Indiana’s best places to work. To receive that kind of recognition, you have to be doing something right – while still growing at a fast clip with more than 200 employees. So, we asked Mike, how do they do it? What’s the secret to keeping your employees at the company in this day in age when people switch jobs faster than ever?

Mike Petrie: One of the things about our culture, my partner and I are pretty fortunate in what's allowed us to be successful - ever since we've been in business, we've made well over $12B in multi-family loans. That's been over a period of 28-29 years and we've had one $2M loan go bad over that course of time, just one. IN the industry, we're known as people who really underwrite good loans, so then that helps you when you want to sell a loan. That's the culture that we wanted our employees to embrace -don't chase bad loans or just do one, make sure it's good so that we're around for 20 years.

Shane: So that’s the first piece of insight Mike wants us to remember – so write this down: you need to have a great product.

Mike Petrie: First, your customer has to be successful using your tool in order for you to be successful. That's kind of the same thing we had, our goal is to lend people money so that they can be successful and grow their businesses - if they're successful, we are too. It's the same thought process. When you go to work, you want your employees to be successful so that you can be successful. Everyone has to succeed in order for you to succeed. It's got to be a win-win.

Shane: That’s first and foremost. If the product stinks, your employees will know it stinks, and they aren’t going to be passionate about it. And we know from various studies that passionate, engaged employees are more loyal to the company. So that’s tip number one.

Mike Petrie: The other thing is, part of our culture was to educate everybody. I can't tell you how many MBAs I've bought here at IU that we've trained - I trained my people just like I was, I got my undergrad here and my MBA here while I was working at Merchant's National Bank. I've done the same for my employees, [because] if we invest in them, they know we want them to stick around, and we have a very high retention rate, 90%. We have a lot of people that have been around, been educated, we moved them up, there's a lot of opportunity for them, and for the last three years, we've been one of the top places in Indiana to work, according to that [Indy] Chamber of Commerce survey. We invest in our employees so that they improve their careers, which benefit us as they develop these products and sell loans off.

Shane: There’s tip number two from Mike – develop your employees. Offer incentives for them to further their skill set and education. This again shows them that you care about their development, but it’s also benefiting the company in a major way by creating a better product or service.

(Closing Music)

Shane: And finally: communicate. Talk with your teams, make sure their managers are having discussions with them… At the end of the day, help improve your employees. Make them better at everything they do – and show you truly care about their future. If you do this, it will pass down to the customer, which will feed into results – and that’s a winning formula for keeping employees and a thriving business.

(ROI Podcast Music)

Shane: Closing comments