10 minute read
Data Bank: Numbers tell the story
DATA BANK
Numbers tell the story
5.5%
Real GDP decline in Louisiana in 2020, among the steepest declines in the South
ISTOCK ARTS
72%
Baton Rouge residents who favor legalizing both medicinal and recreational marijuana use
67%
Louisianans who favor legalizing both medicinal and recreational marijuana
Truck drivers and nurses
The two most high-demand occupations last quarter in the Capital Region
42%
U.S. business owners who reported job openings that could not be filled
80,000
Proposed square footage for new Floor & Decor retail business to be located near Costco
17
Number of named storms predicted to form this hurricane season
CONGRATULATIONS Vanessa!
You’ve certainly made a big impact for Sparkhound!
Sparkhound is a Digital Automaton and Managed Infrastructure frm helping businesses maximize the potental of technology.
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We model and improve your organizaton’s processes through industry knowledge, strategy, and technology innovaton to create operatonal efciency and actonable data.
Managed Infrastructure
We modernize and manage your IT environment to align with industry best practces, providing the scale of a Fortune 500 IT Department at a fracton of the price.
Thank you for helping bring Sparkhound to new heights!
sparkhound.com (866) 217-1500
INDUSTRY INSIGHTS
SPONSORED BY:
Getting ahead: ‘Real world’ Executive MBA consulting projects are helping to further careers in Baton Rouge
Anew corporate partnership through the Flores Executive MBA Flex Program o ers students the opportunity to work on consulting projects that utilize their classroom skills on real world business issues.
The LSU Flores MBA Program is competitive and highly regarded in national and regional markets, fostering learning, leadership, and networking in a global business environment.
In March 2021, Baton Rouge-based company Smalls Sliders partnered with the students in LSU’s Flores Executive MBA Flex Program to host a business challenge event. This virtual competition gave students a chance to work on a short-term consulting project and present results to the partner company. Smalls Sliders is a streamlined operation specializing in cooked-to-order premium slider burgers. The restaurant is a partnership between New Orleans Saints Quarterback Drew Brees, Walk-On’s Bistreaux & Bar co-founder Brandon Landry, Jacob Dugas (MBA’12) and Flores MBA Instructor Scott Fargason. “The talent within the Flores MBA Program is the same type of talent we aspire to include in our business. I’m confident that this partnership will help us to make prudent decisions moving forward as we look to expand our footprint in Baton Rouge,” says Smalls Sliders co-founder Jacob Dugas, LSU Flores MBA class of 2012. Located conveniently on Nicholson Drive, Smalls plans to open a second location soon in the Bluebonnet Village Shopping Center.
In preparation for the Business Challenge, teams of students spoke with Small Sliders company representatives to discuss the challenge, project scope, and industry-relevant information.
The Flores Executive MBA Flex format provides new opportunities for its students. “Throughout the Flores EMBA Flex Program, students have opportunities to work on consultative projects with companies, delivering solutions to those companies in real-time,” Flores MBA Director Dana Hart says. “This level of experiential learning allows our students to not only add value to area companies, but it’s also a great way for the students to consistently work with a network of peer MBA students to maximize the overall potential of their MBA experience.”
Chris Stogner, the Safety & Critical Control Leader at Triconex and a student in the Flores EMBA Flex class of 2022 was thrilled with the experience. “The opportunity to work with Smalls Sliders in a consultative manner helped ingrain the learnings from academic material by putting it to work in a real-world application,” Stogner says. “The business challenge format fostered an environment of healthy competition, and the diversity of talent among the teams allowed us as students to learn from each other’s experience as well as provide Smalls Sliders with a broad range of meaningful recommendations to help achieve their goal of growing their business in a structured and profitable manner.”
Like Small’s, other businesses partnering with Flores EMBA Flex students will benefit from the program with fresh ideas and input from tomorrow’s industry leaders. In the Flores EMBA Flex Program, students will have an opportunity to gain insights with some big companies throughout their time at LSU: • Acadian Ambulance • Ochsner Medical Center • Houston Rockets
LSU’s Flores MBA Flex Program o ers fulltime, one-year, and online tracks with schedule flexibility for those wishing to pursue their MBA from a nationally recognized program. Visit lsu.edu/business/mba to learn more and follow @LSUFloresMBA on social media.
The Smalls Sliders consulting project offered Flores EMBA Flex students an opportunity to apply our knowledge and skills in solving a real world problem. The ‘Shark Tank’ style competition challenged teams to work collaboratively in determining and presenting our customized solutions to experienced business leaders, while staying true to the Smalls Sliders brand. This project was a fun way to get better acquainted with my classmates, but also provided a unique networking opportunity with EMBA alumni, faculty, and the owners and investors of Small Sliders.
PRISCILLA SIMPSON, EMBA Flex Class of 2022 Director of Events & Operations, Shaw Center for the Arts
3 THINGS TO KNOW: JASON LASSEIGNE
President and COO, Sparkhound
1
Lasseigne’s stepdad was his most influential mentor. An Amite native, Lasseigne grew up working tank jobs with his stepfather, a welder, across the South. While the labor was brutal, Lasseigne learned the meaning of hard work—a lesson he credits as invaluable to his career. “A week doesn’t go by where I don’t think about how hard he worked.”
FAVORITE THINGS:
COURTESY JASON LASSEIGNE
Date night with daughter Anna Rea
“There’s nothing more special than her and I going out to dinner, having alone time and hearing about her day.”
Golf with friends
“We are so hard on each other but it is all in fun. We love each other like brothers.”
Scotch
“The more peaty, the better.”
UMAMI Japanese Bistro
“We sit at the sushi bar and just let the chef make whatever he can dream up. Sake is always a must.”
Cars
“Since I was a young boy I’ve been infatuated with them. The faster, the better.”
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2
His first job out of LSU took him across the world. A summer internship with IBM led to an opportunity with IBM’s Global Services upon graduation. For nearly six years, Lasseigne bounced across the country and as far as Belgium and Tokyo in his job. “You learn so much from traveling and many of the experiences have stuck with me.”
3
While he’s worked in the technology industry, Lasseigne points to process improvement as his passion and career focus. “My goal is always to make things better, more efficient. Companies are often so focused on the outcome that they create a bit of a mess trying to get there. There’s nothing more fun than cleaning that up.”
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Albina Brahimi
Owner, Jabby’s Pizza
WHAT THEY DO:
Artisan pizza
ADDRESS:
18303 Perkins Road, Baton Rouge NEXT GOALS:
Expansion
PREP
Albina Brahimi left her home in Kosovo as a teenager with her family to escape war, moving to Baton Rouge in 1999. “I didn’t speak English and didn’t know about Louisiana. I had no idea where we were going or what we were going to do here.” She enrolled in a local college with the intent to study nursing, but PTSD from the war caused her to change her major to health care administration, and ultimately she began a career in banking after graduation. “Banking, I liked it, but it wasn’t what I loved. Food has always been a passion for me. Ever since I was a little kid I dreamed of opening a restaurant.”
PREHEATING
In 2019, with the encouragement of her husband and children, she quit her job at a local bank and began catering, all the while fostering her dream of owning her own restaurant. She credits family friend and local restaurateur Alfred Kulici, owner of La Contea, for helping her get into the business. He told her Jabby’s Pizza, located off Highland Road, was for sale and suggested she check it out. “The way I felt when I saw the brick pizza oven, I knew I could make the best pizzas in that oven. I texted him right away, ‘I’m in, 100 percent.’” She took over the business from its previous owners at the end of October 2019, immediately changing the recipes for the doughs and sauces. “I wasn’t nervous about buying the business because I know myself, I know how hard I work and know what kind of food I push out.”
BAKE
While some businesses have downsized during the pandemic, Brahimi has expanded hers. Earlier this spring, Brahimi expanded Jabby’s to Thibodaux, in Lafourche Parish, after buying and rebranding an existing pizza shop, and she has plans to open a restaurant in Prairieville this summer. However, there have been challenges. While Brahimi estimates business has doubled since last year, increases in food costs have been a burden. Brahimi attributes the business’s survival to her frugality. “We would like to expand as much as possible. But we will grow more as the right time comes. Right now, we have a lot to do.” —By Holly Duchmann • Photography by Brian Baiamonte
DESIGN
BLUE ZOO
Mall of Louisiana, 6401 Bluebonnet Blvd., Suite 1123, Baton Rouge
PHOTOGRAPHY BY TIM MUELLER
Owner: Wes Haws Architect: Holden Architects Contractor: Martinez Construction Cost: $775,000 Completed: April Use: Aquarium
FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION: “We see children every day become immersed in this underwater world of creatures, most of which they have only seen in books or in animated videos. It is an exceptional and exhilarating learning experience.” —Wes Haws, founder and owner, Blue Zoo 1. Blue Zoo aquarium recently opened in a 16,000-square-foot space on the first floor of the Mall of Louisiana. The aquarium offers 30 unique attractions and guests can interact with stingrays, urchins, starfish, reptiles and birds.
2. The shark room and playroom couples a 20,000-gallon shark tank with water play tables, mermaid story time setting and pirate ship playhouse. The shark tank includes whitetip and blacktip reef sharks, golden heart triggerfish and a shovelnose guitarfish.
3. The aquarium includes both fresh (pictured) and saltwater fish as well as reptiles and birds.
