The Leading Edge: Spring 2010 Vol.3, Issue 1

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Vol. 3, Issue 1 • Spring 2010 • A newsletter for alumni and friends of the Nazareth School of Management For more information on SOM, visit www.naz.edu/dept/som

Dear alumni and friends,

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During the last 50 years, business schools have placed too much emphasis on the quantitative and the technical. As a result, we get a lot of people who understand the mechanics of business but have little understanding of management, leadership, and the human side of the enterprise. This produces shortterm gains and not much else.

All students should be taught to understand that there is a human being behind the numbers. We should not be teaching students to manage from afar and to view employees as expendable and flexible inputs into the production process.

This reduces employees to pieces of inventory on a balance sheet.The last decade was the poster child for short-sighted self-interest by business and Wall Street. I doubt the financial system could survive another experience like that. In the long run, the financial thugs who almost ruined our economy will eventually ruin all the great companies.

Business schools need to drive home the lessons learned from the financial meltdown. Ethics and social responsibility should be more than a stand-alone course and integrated throughout the curriculum. This is our practice, and it is time for other schools to follow our lead.

Education alone can never guarantee that decision-makers will behave in a moral and ethical manner. However, it is a great first step in combination with sound and effective regulations.

It also requires a long-run commitment to the greater good by corporate America and Wall Street.

azareth College accounting professors are encouraging their students to think like financial criminals—at least for a few hours. Last fall, 35 School of Management students participated in the Adrian Project, an interactive workshop run by the Internal Revenue Service that teaches students how the IRS investigates white-collar crimes.

The students worked with eight IRS agents from the criminal Left to right: Colleen Echter ’10, investigations unit to solve a Anne Marie Bernardoni ’10, and hypothetical financial crime.

Dan Matteo ’10, ’11G search for They used forensic accounting evidence of a financial crime during techniques and employed the Adrian Project workshop last undercover operations, November. surveillance, and other tools available to federal law enforcement officers. And yes, they gathered evidence by picking through bags of trash.

“The goal was to get students some hands-on experience, bringing all their knowledge to the situation,” says Eileen Beiter, assistant professor of accounting, who co-organized the event with Phyllis Bloom, associate professor and director of the accounting program.

“They had to use their analytical and problem-solving skills, as well as accounting, law, and the general business curriculum.” The simulation lasted several hours and exposed students to career fields with which they weren’t necessarily familiar. “In many ways, we took them out of their comfort zones,” Beiter adds.

The students’ response to the program was very positive, and the agents were swamped at the end of the session by student questions about possible careers and internships. Beiter and Bloom hope to make the workshop an annual event, perhaps expanding the program to a full-day exercise.

Sincerely,

Gerard F. Zappia, Dean Nazareth College School of Managemen Visit Dean Zappia’s official blog at http://naz.typepad.com/zappia

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Student Profile

Not Your Average Accounting Adventure

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Alumni Profile

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Zarrella Lecture

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Rotary Event

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Amy Floeser Helps People thr ough Hu man Resou rces

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enior Amy Floeser exemplifies the kind of success story in which Nazareth’s School of Management takes great pride. A resident of Mendon, N.Y., Floeser entered college without any identified career direction. “I was totally clueless about my future,” Floeser recalls, “and that really worried me.” Then, in her freshman year, Floeser held a work/study position in the College’s human resources department, and that turned out to be her tipping point.

Floeser has always been a people person. “I like to help,” she says. “I knew I couldn’t be a nurse—I’d be fainting all the time— but human resources seemed like an area where I really could help people.” Mary Sue Engle, Nazareth’s associate director of human resources, was Floeser’s supervisor at that time and immediately sensed her potential. “Amy has a great personality, is very smart,

Students Receive Small Business Council Scholarships for 2009

Left to right: Stephen Trobert ’10, ’11G; Dr. Robert Marino, chair, School of Management; Phyllis Bloom, associate professor and director of accounting program; Daniel Matteo ’10, ’11G; and Gary Nothnagle, associate professor of marketing.

and has a super work ethic,” Engle says. “She seemed like a natural for this field.”

Floeser declared her major in business administration and has held two internships in human resources at the Fortune 500 firm Paychex. They first placed her on the recruitment team. “It was neat to see the work you do to bring people into the company,” she says, “but I realized that I prefer working with people who are already employees.” Floeser’s second internship gave her just that kind of opportunity, as she joined the leave of absence team.

Floeser performed so well in these internships that Paychex offered her a job in human resources, at which she has been working for about 20 hours a week since August 2009. This commitment has in no way delayed her graduation timetable or adversely affected her academic average—3.8 in her most recent semester. “Amy is ideally suited to human resources in that it demands a combination of attentiveness to detail and process and an open and welcoming nature,” said Albert Cabral, professor of management and Floeser’s adviser. “Amy has that combination, and she’s a great example of how a student can realize his or her potential at Nazareth.”

Since the early 1990s, the School of Management at Nazareth College and the Small Business Council (SBC) of Rochester have worked together to promote entrepreneurship in the business curriculum. As a result, the SBC has been providing $1,000 scholarships annually to two students enrolled in a business program at Nazareth College. Eligible SOM students must have an interest in starting a business and have completed at least three semesters of fulltime study. This year’s scholarship recipients are Daniel Matteo ’10, ’11G and Stephen Trobert ’10, ’11G, both of whom are currently enrolled in the joint B.S./M.S. in accounting degree program.

Matteo is a regular member of the dean’s list with a GPA of 3.96 and is a member of the Sigma Beta Delta Business Honor Society. He has completed internships at two local accounting firms, Bonadio and Co and Mengel, Metzger, Barr.

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Matteo serves as vice president of the Accounting Club and the Economics/Investment Club. He has been active as a Student Athlete Mentor Scholar and serves on the Student Athlete Advisory Committee. He is also a member of the varsity track and field team and currently serves as the co-captain of the varsity tennis team.

Stephen Trobert is regular member of the dean’s list with a GPA of 3.78 and is a member of both the Phi Eta Sigma Freshman Honor Society and the Sigma Beta Delta Business Honor Society. He is co-captain of the varsity tennis team and serves as a Student Athlete Mentor and is a member of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee. Trobert has also contributed his time to Relay for Life, Camp Good Days and Special Times, St. Anne’s Church in Manlius, the Manlius Public Library, and the Fayetteville Recreation Department.

Nazareth Supports

Virtual Enterprises Program More than 50 undergraduates from Nazareth College and the University of Rochester judged the written business plans of local high school students who participated in the Virtual Enterprises (VE) program last November. VE is a simulated business that is set up and run by students with the guidance of a teacher/facilitator and a business partner.

“The comments and rankings of the business plans from University of Rochester and Nazareth School of Management judges are an invaluable real-world contribution to our students’ educational process,” says Jacqueline McClaney, “VE does a coordinator of the VE program for the Rochester City School w o n e r f u l j o b p r e pa r i n g District.

“VE does a wonderful job of preparing [high school] [high school] Students Eric Wilson ’11 and Hope Lester ’10, students in students for the future,” the SOM Entrepreneurship class, help judge high adds Gerard Zappia, dean for the future “ school business plans. of Nazareth’s School of Management. “It gets them thinking about creating an entity that creates employment and something valuable for the customer. They start thinking about controlling their own destiny. The days of hiding for 25 years in a large corporation are gone.”

This marks the second year that the two colleges have joined together to help entrepreneurial youth in the community.

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or many years, Rose Marie Barber ’72, executive secretary to Gerard Zappia, dean of the School of Management, has been a Nazareth fixture. Her familiar face and helpful manner will soon be missed, however, for Rose Marie has announced plans to retire in June.

Not only is Rose Marie a longtime staff member, but she is herself a Nazareth graduate. “I was a business and economics major,” she recalls. “I always figured I would go work for a large company after I graduated.

However, I married while I was an undergraduate, and Elizabeth Fake, who was head of the business department at that time, called me about a job at the College, as she figured I probably could use the money.”

Rose Marie’s association with Nazareth has spanned 38 years. “I was with Continuing Education, then Graduate Studies, and then

Moving On 10 years ago I started working with Jerry Zappia,” she says. “I stayed because I always liked what I was doing and enjoyed working with both undergraduate and graduate students.”

For Rose Marie, Nazareth is the epitome of a caring community.

“I’ve been through five presidents and it’s consistently been a nurturing place,” she says. “It’s a great learning environment.”

As good as Nazareth has been to Rose Marie, she has returned the favor many times over. “She’s my project manager and keeps me organized,” says Zappia. “She’s totally unflappable and always enjoys a challenge. We do a lot of new things here that have never been done before, and Rose Marie thrives on solving problems.

She also has tremendous social skills and interfaces effectively with students, faculty, business people, and benefactors.”

Looking toward the future, Rose Marie plans to spend quality time with

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her husband David, who is already retired, her children, and her grandchildren. “I’d also love to do more traveling,” she says, “as well as gardening, reading, and volunteer work. I’ll certainly miss everyone at Nazareth, but I plan to stay in touch.”

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Beth Schroeder ’09G: A New Type of Leader I wanted to move toward management and be involved in changing processes.” To that end, Schroeder entered Nazareth’s master of science degree in management program in 2006.

“At that time, at Rochester General, we were doing a lot of cultural transformation work,” Schroeder recalls. “The two hospitals had merged and we were realigning the entire organization so that everyone shared the same mission and vision. I knew I needed more education if I was going to effectively help with that effort.”

Nazareth’s program was exactly what Schroeder was looking for.

“Classes in ethics and leadership gave me insights into myself,” she says. “I learned about the different types of leaders and what kind I was. I call it ‘leadership therapy.’”

Schroeder excelled at Nazareth. “She typifies the kind of person we hope to attract,” says Gerard Zappia, dean of the School of Management. “We want people we can learn from as much as people who can learn from us.”

While Schroeder received the Excellence in Management Education award at commencement, her biggest reward has been her own development as a leader. “I used to have an archaic understanding of leadership,” she said. “It was ‘you do this and you do that.’ Now that I’ve learned about service leadership, my goal is to be a truly transformational leader working in a transparent environment.”

he career of Beth Schroeder ’09G amply proves that experience coupled with education spells success.

This Webster native started out at Monroe Community College and completed her undergraduate degree at RIT in 1993 with a major in biotechnology. Ever since high school, she had worked as a phlebotomist, with the goal of one day leading a phlebotomy team. In 1995, she was hired by Genesee Hospital as an assistant supervisor and was promoted to associate supervisor at Rochester General Hospital in 1997, when the two hospitals merged.

Schroeder currently serves as manager of laboratory sciences for Rochester General’s phlebotomy department, with responsibility for 25 offices in four counties.

“The sciences have always interested me,” Schroeder says. “I’m an analytical thinker. I need to prove processes. But I also knew that

N e t w o r k i n g for the New Millenium T he S chool of Ma n age m e n t has revised speed dating for the new economy. Last December, the SOM’s Economics/Investment and Accounting Clubs collaborated to sponsor a speed networking event on campus. Ten alumni and 25 students gathered around a half dozen tables, asking questions and sharing information, with students switching places whenever a 10-minute timer went off.

Alums ranged widely in age and expertise, and students could ask whatever they wanted, from advice on getting job interviews to the state of the business climate.

“Students gained confidence and experience in approaching someone who has a job when they don’t,” says event organizer Daniel Matteo ’10, ’11G, vice president of the two clubs, who credits the idea to clubs member Steve Guglielmo ’10. “They weren’t allowed to bring résumés, but they had the chance to get their faces out there.” The students had lots of questions, Matteo says; no one needed to use the “ice breaker” question cards supplied on each table in case of awkward silences.

Students and alums alike responded well to the low-pressure situation, and alums also appreciated the chance to give back to their alma mater.

The speed networking was followed by a dinner and a social in Medaille Formal Lounge, at which some actual, real-time networking took place. The format worked so smoothly that Nazareth’s Career Services office is now using the event as a model for future speed networking events in other schools across campus. Another event is scheduled for March, with plans to make the event a regular for each semester.

For more information about the clubs, visit www.naz.edu/dept/som/clubs.cfm or www.naz.edu/dept/studentactivities/ accounting.cfm

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Ronald Zarrella, Former Bausch & Lomb CEO, D elivers M ancini L ecture

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in Rochester and the University of Rochester Medical Center, is a vice chair of the Rochester Institute of Technology, and is chairman emeritus of Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He has also served on the boards of John Hopkins Medicine, Rochester Museum & Science Center, and the Detroit Symphony, offering insights gained from his successful career in the business world.

Zarrella’s talk, “A Corporate Odyssey,” chronicled his long and distinguished career as an executive for companies in industries such as consumer health and beauty, pharmaceuticals, ladies apparel, appliances, eyewear, autos, and telecommunications.

Zarrella described himself as an engineer with a flair for marketing, attributing much of his success to his grandparents and parents who imparted strong values and served as role models for a solid work ethic. He also credited others for his success, saying that no one makes it to high leadership positions without the help of “influential mentors” and that “terrific people” had helped him at important points in his career.

Discussing his “distaste for most things Wall Street,” Zarrella offered some observations and solutions to what he described as the “short-termism” of corporate America and Wall Street.

n his first public speech since retiring as Bausch & Lomb CEO, Ronald L. Zarrella delivered the Mancini Lecture at Nazareth College last November.

Prior to his talk, Zarrella joined several members of the ItalianAmerican community and School of Management students, alumni, faculty, and friends for a cocktail reception in the Palladoro Lounge in the Nazareth College Arts Center.

Zarrella served at Bausch & Lomb as the company’s chairman and CEO from 2001 to 2008 and was responsible for expanding all aspects of the business, including leading the company into a period of growth. Prior to Bausch & Lomb, he spent seven years with General Motors Corporation, most recently as executive vice president and president of General Motors North America in Detroit.

As an active member of the community, Zarrella belongs to the boards of directors of the Committee for Economic Development

R o na l d Z arr e l l a ’ s A d v i c e t o C o r p o r a t e B o a r d s • Support the development of strategic plans with sound longterm objectives. Boards are focusing on risk management to the exclusion of appropriate effort toward helping management concentrate on the drivers of growth and enduring value.

• Link executive compensation to long-term performance and not short-term accounting earnings.

This promotes a long-term view and reduces the incentive to pursue shortterm gain at the expense of long-term performance.

• Address succession planning and shorter CEO tenures. CEO tenure has gone from 8.9 years (1995) to 4.9 years (2000) to an estimated 3.5 years (2009). The reduced tenure promotes a short-term view and an emphasis on short-term financial performance by the CEO. Organizations should give more thought to nurturing and developing CEOs from within the organization.

They could serve without a contract and at the will of the board. This approach can help reduce short-termism along with the excessive sign-on bonuses and

severance packages that may come from hiring from the outside.

• Stop giving quarterly guidance and change the tax laws. The quarterly report serves no long-term purpose.

The ethical dilemmas of Enron and WorldCom can, in part, be traced to their desire to produce strong quarterly results for the financial markets.

Change the tax laws to encourage long-term financial commitment as opposed to short-term speculation.

Companies should feel no loyalty to those who hold the stock for a few months in search of a quick profit.

One suggestion is that the government impose a 75 percent tax on those who hold a stock for less than six months, the ordinary tax rate for those who hold a stock for six to 12 months, a 20 percent tax rate for one to three years, and a 10 percent tax rate for more than three years. This will develop long-term thinking and encourage the celebration of innovation. Innovation is one of the solutions to U.S. economic leadership and the preservation of our way of life. Short-termism must end if we wish to compete with companies and

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economies that take the long-term view, such as India and China.

• Remember that business is noble and should have a noble purpose.

Business should be about more than making money. A business should have a noble purpose and vision; employees will never rally around the vision of making money. Business should serve society and produce goods and services that make life better and provide jobs.

One of the best corporate citizens in America, Wegmans, resides in Rochester, N.Y. The Mancini Lecture Series, sponsored

by Nazareth College’s Casa Italiana and supported by the Mancini Charitable Foundation, features Italians and Italian Americans who are leading public servants, industrialists, and statesmen. Past speakers have included retired U.S. Marine Corps General Anthony Zinni, Judge Domenick Gabrielli, New York State First Lady Matilda Cuomo, pioneer psychiatrist John Romano, Gannett newspaper publisher Vincent Spezzano, Paychex President B. Thomas Golisano, and Central Trust Company President Angelo Costanza.

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Marv L e vy Entertains S OM C o n t i n g e n t at Rotary Event

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ast November, several School of Management faculty, staff, and alumni attended a Rochester Rotary Club luncheon with featured speaker Marv Levy, the Hall of Fame coach and former head coach of the Buffalo Bills.

Left to right: David Drolette ’91, payroll supervisor; Rose Marie Barber ’72, executive secretary to the dean of the School of Management; Marv Levy; Dr. Deborah LaBelle, associate professor and director of the SOM Information Technology program; and Fern Cardella.

Not pictured: Peter Bothner, director of athletics and adjunct professor of management; and Joe Seil, assistant athletic director and sports information director.

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