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College of Business Administration Newsletter
Peter Ho, President of Bank of Hawai‘i, Speaks at the Executive MBA Luncheon Hawai‗i Pacific University‘s College of Business Administration‘s EMBA participants gathered at the Indigo Restaurant for the 2008 Executive MBA Distinguished Speaker Series to network and listen to a presentation given by Peter Ho, Bank of Hawai‗i‘s President and Chief Banking Officer. In addition to EMBA participants, MBA Faculty and HPU Administrators attended the event. Peter Ho, who is also a member of the board of Trustees at Hawai‗i Pacific University, explained the reasons behind the collapse of the subprime mortgage industry. He then provided the details of what this means for the local companies and the changes that must be adopted to survive the economic recession. Peter Ho
MGMT 4001 Students Connect with Successful Alumnus On October 14, 2008, the MGMT 4001D Business Policy class, taught by Dr. Susan Fox-Wolfgramm, Professor of Management, had a unique opportunity to go on a field trip and visit a former HPU business graduate‘s new gourmet quick service business ventures at the Safeway Kapahulu Shopping Center. The students visited ―Good to Grill,‖ ―Caliente del Sol,‖ and ―Burgers on the Edge.‖ They were also offered a free meal at the restaurant of their choice, after the field trip presentation. Mr. Jason Kim, a 2001 HPU undergraduate business major graduate, and former MGMT 4001 student of Dr. FoxWolfgramm, is a partner with Mr. Wes Zane in these three business ventures. Mr. Kim and his company, NiceCream LLC, are in charge of the back-end operations, and Mr. Zane, President of Laughing Gravy Restaurants, the creator of the concepts, is in charge of the design and front-end operations. Both have Dr. Susan Fox-Wolfgramm, Jeffson Bualuay, Goldee Nastor, Robert Fischer, Mr. Jason Kim, known each other for a long time, love food, and were excited James McCabe, Josh Maynard, Chris Scales, Martin Martensson, April Katada. to discuss their passion for starting the businesses with the students. They agreed that their long-term friendship contributed a lot to the success of their collaboration and admitted that friends and contacts are interested in franchising their ideas on the Mainland and in Asia, in the future. The students learned, first-hand, about the challenges and opportunities in strategically creating and operating a business. Ideas about environmental scanning, strategy formulation, implementation, and evaluation and control were conveyed, throughout the owners‘ presentations. Students learned about the importance of SWOT analysis; developing a business identity and philosophy that leads to success; daily ideas and actions that go into running these restaurants; and the challenges that lie ahead in sustaining their future success; such as, maintaining quality control, creating new recipes, effectively managing employees, and providing customers with a great experience. After the field trip presentation, the students were asked to share what they learned from this experience. Ideas such as, ―starting a business can be a lengthy process unless you have good networking skills,‖ ―having different concepts happening at once can become confusing and may be difficult to make successful all at once,‖ ―how important product branding and extension can be, ―developing potential franchise concepts;‖ ―how to carve out industry niches;‖ and ―what the owners can do to achieve more efficiencies with closely located establishments,‖ were some of their insights. ―What we learned in class, played out in front of my eyes, said Jeffson Bualuay, a student in the class. ―These are ordinary people like you and me. He (Jason Kim) took the same class I am taking now and seven years later, he is living his dream.‖ Goldee Nastor, another student in the class, said ―it was a great experience to meet with the owners because they have hands-on experience with the company and are well aware of what works and what does not and built the restaurants from the ground-up.‖ When she selected her free meal at ―Burgers on the Edge,‖ she was surprised that the cashier wanted her to ―add‖ one more choice to her personal choices on her own burger creation.