Where's Walton? At the Traveler's Game!

This week, Rachel Burton and I made our way to Little Rock for the Walton College Alumni Society's "Baseball, Burgers, and Business" event at Dickey-Stephens Field. The Arkansas Travelers played the Tulsa Drillers, and about 30 alumni from central Arkansas joined us for networking and tasty ballpark food before the game. Here are some pictures from the event:

The site of our pre-game picnic

Walton College koozies (with the new logo!) and University of Arkansas stress hogs

Mr. and Mrs. Tom Draper with Susie and Cleve Jones (BSIM '62)

Danny (BSBA '79) and Anna Burnett, Chuck Dudley (BSBA '76 & MBA '77), and Nicole Burnett

Ashley (BSBA '00) and Jason Parker (BSBA '00), Buckley O'Mell (BSBA '02, JD '05), and Rick Gillham (BSBA '09)

Melissa Harral (BSHES '95) with Katie, Elise, and Ryan Boyd (BSBA '99)

Adam Hale (current MBA student) with two local guests and Greg Nabholz (BSBA '88, MBA '90)

While we were in town, Rachel and I also met with Katy Allen (BSBA '08), who works for Acxiom and is married to American Idol Kris Allen; John Conner (BSBA '94), a former Business Alumni Advisory Council member of ours who works for Stephens Inc.; Buckley O'Mell (BSBA '02), author of several fantastic posts on this blog and commercial real estate broker & developer for Flake & Kelley Commercial; and Heather Nelson (BSBA '94), a senior vice president with U.S. Bank who is president-elect of the Walton College Alumni Society. As always, we had a great time visiting with everyone and sharing news from The Hill.

We look forward to visiting central Arkansas again soon!

Jennifer Holland
Associate Director of Development
Sam M. Walton College of Business

Chris Moon - A Peking Face-Lift

This summer, the Walton College is proud to feature Chris Moon, one of our information systems students, who is guest-blogging for us while he embarks on a Study Abroad experience in China. The following is the fifth post from Chris. Links to his previous posts can be found below his signature.

“This one make you mrrrphhhh!,” the man exclaims as he flexes. “Buy,buy,buy,buy,buy!” the women say. “What's this?” I ask, as the young man just winks and points below the counter. In China, it goes, “If it flies in the air, or moves across the earth, then it must be good to eat.” Here in Beijing, along Donghuamen and Wangfujing food streets, it might as well be law. Strolling through the droves of stalls we see live scorpions, dried lizards and snakes, ostrich, venison, sea horses, starfish and various other creepy-crawlies all skewered for a good munch. As we bought a skewer of scorpions, our entomophagy would come back to haunt us.

As a boy, whenever I was presented with a bunk bed the first four words that shot out of my mouth amidst a flurry of fists were always, “I call top-bunk!” In China, it's top-bunk indeed, as they run about $15 cheaper on a train. The price variation simply has to do with the bed's radius of gyration increasing in regards to its height off the ground as it forms a rudimentary pendulum structure in the rocking train. In any sense, you are almost always guaranteed a good time taking a sleeper train anywhere abroad, as the chances of meeting a fun foreign friend are high.

The next morning, we met Ricky, our tour guide. Mother goose, he was always busy clapping, whistling, and shooing us along like a bunch of dawdling ducklings. Speaking of duck, our group was treated to an “All-Ducks-Must-Die!” extravaganza as a relentless onslaught of famous Peking duck meat, pancakes, spring onions and hoisin sauce was dashed against our ramparts of chopsticks and spoons.

Our hotel was located in one of Beijing's famous (and vanishing) hutongs, or alleyways. As far back as the Ming Dynasty (early 15th century), hutongs were a residential division of Beijing for the middle class. With their decreed coloring of grey and natural tones and narrow passageways, they have defined and confined the lives and thoughts of their communities. Today, only a select few hutongs are protected, as locals fight to save their buildings from bearing the character “拆 " or “tear down.”


Tian'anmen Square was what one might expect. Hosts of people. Salesmen. Kites. Mao's bald creepy grandpa-like visage glaring at you. The murmur amongst tourists, “...tank... guy... stood here?” Further along, the Forbidden City was creaking. Recently touched up for the Olympics, many of the buildings are still in disrepair. Meanwhile, priceless relics are housed behind thin plates of smudged glass while they collect dust on an open shelf in an un-air-conditioned room. It's boggling that something of such immense cultural and historical value is being left to slowly fall apart. Even under the assistance of UNESCO and the patronage of millions of tourists, it seems that the royal dwellings are strapped for cash. In a stark juxtaposition, the newly built half-a-billion dollar Bird's Nest has yet to house another major post-Olympic event. With its 90,000 seats and cutting edge architecture, it’s only seen the foot traffic of camera laden tourists snatching up the remnants of 2008 Olympic swag. Recently, the owners of the Bird's Nest doomed it to join the leagues of so many other Chinese landmarks; in five years it is planned to become a shopping mall.



For many of us, the highlight of our trip to Beijing would be the proposition of spending the night camping on the Great Wall. We had avoided the number four, rubbed golden lions' heads, and grown out our finger nails all in the hopes of having good weather. It paid off. The weather was serene for the occasion. Having previously done high-altitude training on Huangshan, members of our group stormed the wall like ruthless Mongolian hordes. At dusk, the Great Wall snaked into a sunset as stars began to drift into sight, all to a background of Electric Ladyland. My smaller group was stationed at an ancient watchtower when we heard the screams. Flashlight beams twisted in the darkness, punctuated by the sounds of zippers and aerosol cans. The scorpions - they had come with a vengeance by stinging one of our classmates and avenging their fallen brethren at the battle of Donghuamen. In a panic, we tried our reserves of N-diethyl-meta-toluamide. It was useless against their carapaces. We scattered to another abode. Our new camp had no locks on the doors, a rusty public spigot for water, and a toilet that was made entirely of nightmares. Daybreak, a lone classmate and I pushed for the wall to catch the sunrise. The Great Wall – really, we've all seen it a million times. Heard about it. Marveled at it as school children. A Chinese student at the University told me, “I think if you haven't seen the Great Wall, you haven't been to China.” Maybe he was right. As someone who tries not to romanticize things, I must admit to stand on the Great Wall is genuinely awe-inspiring. One of man's greatest structural accomplishments.


Soaked in sweat and with aching feet, our program decided to treat us to a spa in Beijing. After removing our shoes, the males entered the changing room. Asking him in broken Chinese, an attendant informed me that towels are provided only after you take a shower. I nodded slowly. Most of us standing six feet tall and sporting farmers' tans, a group of naked Westerners in a primarily Asian spa, caught the interest of the locals. After passing on the communal loofahs hanging at the shower stations, we all suited up in matching pajamas. Rejoining the females in the group nutrition and relaxation center, one can only wonder if the owner is an Aldous Huxley fan.

“For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.” Mr. Ralph W. Emerson said that, and I can't but help dwell on it when I see Beijing. Worthwhile investments, it seems, are notoriously hard to calculate. While people fight to save Beijing's unfrequented gritty alleyways, their priceless forbidden palace groans as it is trampled by strangers every day. The Great Wall still stands in its defunct majesty, having proven vital in blood soaked yesteryears. But how to now spend billions of dollars for the Olympics and World Trade Expo? How to regulate the emerging private domestic market? How to organize IPOs and foreign JVs on the SSE? Where to lift the old and where to graft the new? China's face is on the line, and globalized big business holds the scalpel. Now where do we cut?

Chris Moon
University of Arkansas
Walton College Honors Program
Information Systems

Previous posts:
1) Headed to China
2) Orientation
3) The Fear of Life
4) Into Fresh Air

PepsiCo Provides Grant to University of Arkansas Sustainability Research Center

On hand for product sustainability discussions were Walton College Dean Dan Worrell; Tim Carey, director Sustainability, PepsiCo Beverages; Dan Donohue, vice president, Business Development, Pepsico for Walmart/Sam’s Club Team; Jack Pettijohn, senior manager, Sales Strategy and Sustainability, PepsiCo; David Haft, group vice president for Sustainability and Productivity, FritoLay; Kim Randle, director of corporate and foundation relations, University of Arkansas, and Jon Johnson, executive director, Applied Sustainability Center; and Bruce Pontius, associated vice chancellor for development, University of Arkansas. (Walton College image)

Many consumer product goods companies are taking an integrated approach to sustainability — from the raw material to energy usage to the end of life for packaging. PepsiCo, parent company of brand powerhouses like Pepsi Cola, Frito-Lay and Tropicana, is providing a three-year grant to the Applied Sustainability Center at the University of Arkansas to support research on how to create more sustainable products.

The Applied Sustainability Center, founded in 2007, is housed in the Sam M. Walton College of Business.

David Haft, group vice president for sustainability and productivity for Frito-Lay North America, said, “PepsiCo’s support of the Applied Sustainability Center’s work is consistent with the company’s overall environmental strategy. Our hope is that this partnership will stimulate cutting-edge solutions to environmental challenges and improve the environmental performance of companies like ours.”

Jon Johnson, executive director of the center, said, “We are very excited about the comprehensive approach that PepsiCo is taking to sustainability, and wish more companies would follow their lead. PepsiCo is supporting the work of the center — everything from open-source life-cycle inventory/assessment to developing metrics for a sustainable food index.”

Life-cycle assessment is a powerful tool to measure the environmental and social impacts of products. In order to overcome the cost and time burdens associated with these studies so that broad adoption can occur, a new approach is needed that fosters the collaborative creation of modular life-cycle inventory data that can be leveraged by all who want to add value to the process. Life-cycle assessment and inventory provides a framework for accelerating the adoption of life-cycle assessment methods to inform purchasing decisions that will lead our consumer goods economy toward a sustainable future.

Founded on the belief that sustainability is one of the 21st century’s biggest business challenges and opportunities, the University of Arkansas established the Applied Sustainability Center with a $1.5 million gift from the Wal-Mart Foundation. The center’s sponsors also include are Tyson Foods Inc., Cargill Inc., General Mills Inc., Unilever, Dairy Management Inc., Tetra Pak, Monsanto Co. and Café Born Dia.

The center works with a wide range of partners, including other University of Arkansas colleges, for the rapid development of sustainable business practices and to promote their application across the retail and consumer goods industries. Recent center initiatives include: a sustainability speaker series; training and executive education on the business benefits of sustainability; a sustainability business plan competition; a study of production and distribution of American produce; a forum to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the dairy industry; and a project to assess a product’s environmental impact by creating an open-source life-cycle inventory.

PepsiCo is one of the world’s largest food and beverage companies, with 2008 annual revenues of more than $43 billion. The company employs about 198,000 people worldwide, and its products are sold in approximately 200 countries. Its principal businesses include: Frito-Lay snacks, Pepsi-Cola beverages, Gatorade sports drinks, Tropicana juices and Quaker foods. The PepsiCo portfolio includes 18 brands that generate $1 billion or more each in annual retail sales. PepsiCo’s commitment to sustainable growth, defined as performance with purpose, is focused on generating healthy financial returns while giving back to communities the company serves. This includes meeting consumer needs for a spectrum of convenient foods and beverages, reducing the company’s impact on the environment through water, energy and packaging initiatives, and supporting its employees through a diverse and inclusive culture that recruits and retains world-class talent. PepsiCo is listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index and the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index. For more information, please visit http://www.pepsico.com/.


CONTACTS:

Jon Johnson, executive director, Applied Sustainability Center
Walton College Professor of Sustainability
Sam M. Walton College of Business

Michele Halsell, managing director, Applied Sustainability Center
Sam M. Walton College of Business

Dixie Kline, director of communications
Sam M. Walton College of Business

Vendors FORE Education

The 13th annual Vendors FORE Education golf tournament held last Friday was our best tournament ever. We raised $31,000 to fund student scholarships, and we are deeply grateful to each person on all 24 teams who participated. The weather cooled down, and we all had a great time at the Stonebridge Meadows Golf Club here in Fayetteville. Best of all, students will greatly benefit from the scholarships.

We are very grateful to the tournament organizers Erik Wolff of E-Wolff Sales Solutions, and Russ Heithoff of Strategic Retail Solutions. The Vendors FORE Education tournament began in 1996 as a social gathering for the vendor community and a means of building relationships. The group soon realized the event could provide financial assistance for university students who have the potential to become retail industry leaders. A primary mission of the tournament (and the Center for Retailing Excellence) is to foster relationships between industry and academia.

The Center has partnered with Wolff and Heithoff on the golf tournament since 2002. Since that time, the event has generated more than $81,000 in scholarships, which support students who may have missed out on other financial aid opportunities for various reasons. Wolff continues to support the tournament; “because he wants young people to become the next generation of vendors, and he wants them to know they have a place in the vendor world once they graduate.”

In addition, the Center worked with the University of Arkansas department of intercollegiate athletics to host student athletes and coaches at the event. We wanted to provide a networking opportunity for our women athletes and our industry supporters. These women represent some of the brightest students on campus who also happen to have tremendous athletic ability. We were also grateful to LPGA golfer and former Razorback golfer, Stacy Lewis, for coming out to also support the tournament.

Kelli Shean (UA golf team), Alex Schulte (UA golf team), Shauna Taylor (UA golf coach), Stacy Lewis (LPGA), and Claudia Mobley (Director, Center for Retailing Excellence)

The vendor-supported scholarships can make the difference between having adequate time to focus on academics rather than working excessive hours in order to pay living expenses and pay for school. Students don’t always recognize that the retail industry encompasses more than just working a cash register and stocking shelves. Nor do they realize the diversity of degree concentrations that have applications in the business industry. The participants of this tournament exemplify the many facets of retailing and demonstrate to our students that the career potential is unlimited.

We are also very grateful to our title sponsors for the event: Hunter & Michaels, an organization that specializes in professional placements; Ruiz Foods, makers of El Monterey, America’s favorite Mexican food; Atkins Nutritionals, makers of delicious snacks for a healthier life; and Bayer HealthCare Consumer Care Division, among the largest marketers of over-the-counter medications and nutritional supplements and a member of the Center for Retailing Excellence executive board of directors.

Greg Mertes, Claudia Mobley, Adam Taylor, Kelli Shean, Alex Schulte, and Don Mobley


Claudia Mobley
Director
Center for Retailing Excellence

University of Arkansas and Arizona State University Work with Walmart on Developing Sustainable Product Index for Consumer Products

Thursday, July 16, 2009

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Walmart, a world leader in sustainability, announced Thursday, July 16, an investment that reaffirms its commitment to incorporating sustainable business practices throughout the entire consumer business supply chain. Through a revolutionary move, Walmart is helping create a consortium of universities, jointly administered by the University of Arkansas and Arizona State University.

Walmart’s initial investment will be dispersed equally to Arizona State University and the University of Arkansas; this partnership will conduct the development of a science-based, open source, product lifecycle assessment that will provide scientific innovations that lead to a new generation of sustainable products, materials and technologies.

Through a collaborative process, Sustainability Consortium members, comprised of universities that will collaborate with businesses, non-government organizations (NGOs), and governmental agencies, will design and develop a sustainable product index for consumer products. This index will quantify the sustainable attributes of a product by examining them from raw materials to disposal.

Walmart officials emphasize that their intention is not to “own” the index and consider its strength in success to be its design as a globally shared and open platform tool. The index will drive innovation, highlight opportunities for cost savings and waste reduction and create a common playing field for all. Further, the consortium will be able to track how the index is reducing environmental impacts and driving innovation and green jobs.

“Developing indices to reliably compare products on their environmental performance, in addition to an open-source database to support this, is a key step in the transition to a green economy. The EPA is very interested in this project and will follow it closely,” said Clare Lindsay of the U.S Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery.
“I feel a great sense of pride today as the first stage of our journey begins,” said Jay Golden, co-director of the Sustainability Consortium. “Today an idea has come to reality, and it is even more exciting to envision the outcomes of the next part of this effort, as we create the science, technologies and strategies that vastly transform how businesses operate and how sustainability is infused into our everyday life.”

The Sustainability Consortium is jointly directed by Jay Golden of the Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University and Jon Johnson of the Applied Sustainability Center at the University of Arkansas.

“Through the Sustainability Consortium, the University of Arkansas has a unique opportunity to influence the creation of a tool that will improve the decision-making abilities of consumers around the world,” said Johnson. “We will essentially be conducting research that enables customers to make informed, personal choices about the products they choose to use. Sustainability is, universally, a top priority, and our institution looks forward to working with other leaders in the field to make a visible difference. Arizona State University and the University of Arkansas are committed to leading an effort that will change the way people view their impact on the environment.”

“We are at the beginning stages of something great," said University of Arkansas Chancellor G. David Gearhart. "This initiative will transform the way product value is measured, and I am very pleased that the University of Arkansas is playing a significant role in the growth and progress of sustainable practices.”

At the core of its charge, the Sustainability Consortium will develop scientifically grounded tools to create life-cycle inventories and analysis for thousands of products that are manufactured and used in geographies around the globe. This transparent database will eventually allow retailers and consumers the ability to examine one product against another in a variety of areas. The analysis will factor standardized data beginning with the acquisition of the raw materials, the manufacturing process and distribution channels, consumer use and post-use.

Additionally, the consortium will provide decision and policy makers with a broader understanding of how new and innovative organizational strategies and technologies can assist in meeting various environmental, economic and national security goals.

“As one of the world’s largest corporations, Walmart is a proven and effective change agent in the movement toward a more sustainable future. By recognizing the necessity and power of broad, multisector, global collaboration, this scientific-based index will ultimately transform the consumer market as we know it today – from product source through disposal, from supplier to buyer – it is a transcendent model of doing good and doing well,” said Rob Melnick, executive dean of ASU’s Global Institute of Sustainability.

About the Sustainability Consortium and co-Directors Jay Golden and Jon Johnson:

The Sustainability Consortium is a partnership of researchers from leading global universities, businesses, non-governmental organizations, and governmental agencies. The consortium’s initial goal is to establish credible, transparent and user-friendly scientific standards to measure the sustainability of consumer products.

Jay Golden is an assistant professor in the School of Sustainablilty and a faculty affiliate in the department of Civil, Environmental, and Sustainable Engineering in the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering at Arizona State University. Jon Johnson is the Walton Professor of Sustainability and director of the Applied Sustainability Center in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas.

For more information about the Sustainability Consortium, visit: http://www.sustainabilityconsortium.org/; for a list of the Consortium’s corporate, non-governmental organizations and agency partners, visit: www.sustainabilityconsortium.org/partners.

About the University of Arkansas and its Applied Sustainability Center:

The University of Arkansas is at the forefront of research that looks at how retail commerce can be made more affordable and sustainable. From RFID research to transportation logistics, the university’s work contributes to cost savings, waste reduction and long-term sustainability. Visit the university’s sustainability Web site here: http://sustainability.uark.edu/.

The Applied Sustainability Center at the University of Arkansas leads organizations in the retail and consumer goods industries toward sustainable practices that support an economy built around people, planet and profit. This is accomplished by solving complex problems, providing expert guidance, brokering problems and solutions, and by sponsoring research. The center is part of the Sam M. Walton College of Business and serves multiple disciplines across campus.
For more information about the Applied Sustainability Center, visit: http://asc.uark.edu/.

About Arizona State University and its Global Institute of Sustainability:

ASU has a vision to be a New American University, promoting excellence in its research and among its students and faculty, increasing access to its educational resources and working with communities to positively impact social and economic development. Further, ASU is a public institution where sustainability is a fundamental precept underlying its teaching, learning, research, and business missions; it seeks to create meaningful change by producing knowledge resulting in solutions to global problems of sustainability.

The Global Institute of Sustainability is the hub of ASU’s sustainability initiatives. The Institute advances research, education and business practices for an urbanizing world. Its School of Sustainability, the first of its kind in the U.S., offers transdisciplinary degree programs that advance practical solutions to environmental, economic, and social challenges. For more information about the Global Institute of Sustainability, visit: http://sustainability.asu.edu/. Follow us on Twitter @asuGIOS_SOS.

Jay Golden, Arizona State University; Mike Duke, Walmart President and CEO; and Jon Johnson, University of Arkansas

CONTACTS:
Danielle Strickland, manager of advancement communications
Office of university relations
479-575-7346, strick@uark.edu

Karen Leland, Global Institute of Sustainability
Arizona State University
480-965-0013, karen.leland@asu.edu

Lauren Dech - Looking Back on Belize

My name is Lauren Dech, and I’m a Walton College Honors Student studying International Business with an Economics concentration. I just finished my second year in the Walton College, and at the beginning of the summer, I, along with about fifty other students and faculty from all different disciplines in the University, spent one month doing community development work in Dangriga, Belize, as a study abroad opportunity. This blog entry will give some context to the program I participated in, as well as a recap of our project work. While I was in Belize, I kept a more in-depth blog of my experiences, and you can find it at http://laurentravels.tumblr.com/.

The study abroad program to Belize is an ongoing collaboration between Peacework, a non-profit NGO, and the University of Arkansas. Peacework is an organization that “strives to alleviate poverty and economic disparity in our world through innovative partnerships of higher education, corporations, and communities.” The program we participated in, called the Peacework Village Network is a program that was pioneered by Peacework and the University of Arkansas and is now in its third year. The guiding principle behind the program is this: every need in a community is interrelated. Education, Business, Health Care, Agriculture, Transportation, etc.-- all of these components work together. Coincidentally, one of the best places to find a breadth of different knowledge and disciplines is a university. By pairing universities with developing international communities, Peacework is able to address the many needs of a community in tandem, leading to more effective development. Another important aspect of the program is all of the projects Peacework takes on are led by local community leaders. Development looks different in every culture, and local community leaders are the ones who know best what projects would be beneficial where they live.


The semester before we left, our group took a class called “Community Development in a Global Context.” During the class, we learned about the history of Belize, various approaches to community development, and also worked on our projects. There were six main groups who went to Belize: Agriculture, Engineering, Ecology, Social Work, Literacy, and Business. Within each group, various projects requested by the community were worked on. The projects ranged from building a water filtration system to teaching conflict resolution in the schools. The business team worked on four main projects: microfinance loans for education, tourism and community beautification, business consulting, and business education. All of our projects were fantastic, but the project I worked the most closely with was the business consulting project; in particular, we were teaching business seminars to a local women’s organization called POWA. Many of the women owned or desired to own small businesses, and they wanted to learn about starting and operating a small business, as well as personal budgeting and financing. Getting to meet with and teach the women every week was incredible. Not only did I learn about Belizean culture by meeting with the women (they put on cooking and culture classes for us every Sunday night to enhance the experience), but they really opened up to us on a personal level as well. It was a huge eye opener to see the struggles and situations they deal with, and the many challenges they have to overcome to earn a consistent income. Throughout the whole process we were able to teach them valuable business skills, but I also gained a ton of personal insight. The whole experience of living in a different country, by myself, taught me to really look inward. I realized how much I enjoyed working with the women, and I’m now set on working with a non-profit when I graduate. Belize showed me some really exciting ways I can use a business degree in an international context, as well as a conduit to helping others.


When we weren’t working on our project work, just being in Belize was incredible. I’d been abroad to Europe before but always as a tourist. Actually living in a different culture for a month was a completely different experience. Belize is extremely beautiful, with a huge variety of landscapes. To get to our town, you have to drive through the beautiful Mayan Mountains, only to find yourself on the beach, and with a 20 minute boat ride you can get to the Cayes, tiny islands that are postcard perfect tropical paradises. Though Belize is in Central America, their very diverse culture (the country has five official languages) has a distinctly Caribbean feel and attitude. One of my first impressions of Belize when I got there was, “Wow, this place has personality.” Brightly colored houses, ridiculous store names (The Price is Right Supermarket), and super friendly Belizeans made for a welcoming, exciting experience. Juxtapose that with the highest rate of HIV in Central America and a lot of children whose parents couldn’t afford to send them to high school. Belize was an eye opener for me; that beautiful country forced me to look outside of myself and see the world in a broader, more international context. Belize taught me a lot - not only about the country itself but also about myself. The experience was stretching, but good for me, and I’m so grateful for the things I learned when I spent a month this summer in Dangriga, Belize.



Lauren Dech

Sam M. Walton College of Business

University of Arkansas

Baseball, Burgers and Business!

Walton College Alumni Night at the Travs
Monday, July 27, 2009 at 6:10 p.m.

The Walton College Alumni Society invites you to join fellow alumni and friends at Dickey-Stephens Park on Monday, July 27 for Baseball, Burgers and Business! The picnic starts at 6:10 p.m. at the Baggage Room picnic area and the first pitch will be thrown at 7:10 p.m. For questions about the event call the Walton College Office of External Relations at 479-575-6146 or e-mail alumni@walton.uark.edu.

Register for this event with the Arkansas Alumni Association's new online services.

If you were a previous user of the Arkansas Alumni Online Community, your login will be your username from that system. If you are new to the online services, please contact the Arkansas Alumni Association to get started at 1-888-275-2586 or e-mail help@arkansasalumni.org.

Chris Moon - Into Fresh Air

This summer, the Walton College is proud to feature Chris Moon, one of our information systems students, who is guest-blogging for us while he embarks on a Study Abroad experience in China. The following is the fourth post from Chris. Links to his previous posts can be found below his signature.

Nanjing Road is a river of humans. Luwan's overpasses form a cement cavern. Pudong's traffic are moss covered stones. Yet this Arkansan will not settle for imitation goods this time, he needs the real thing.

Deep in the Anhui province lies 154 square kilometers of Mesozoic era granite rock. Huang Shan (Yellow Mountain) is regarded as a natural treasure, and its inconceivable beauty has inspired thousands of artists and poets for over a thousand years. Amongst its staggering peaks, Huang Shan houses temples; various ancient pine trees including Ying Ke Song, which is rumored to be 1,500 years old; and 60,000 Osgood-Schlatter inducing granite steps.

The trip to Yellow Mountain provides an insight into rural China and is usually done so via a 12 hour overnight train ride. Like a bad power-point presentation, our train's length seemed to go on forever. Car after car after car full of anxious tourists pouring over maps and guide books greeted us. Our party of ten American students made quite the impression, and our bunk mates were quick to strike up broken, yet very animated, bedtime stories. We were on our way.

Yellow Mountain, you want it, we got it. An inelastic demand. Hey, why not monopolize the entire mountain's transit system? Why not charge prices that would make even a Westerner tear up? Better yet, watch the prices of goods rise with every step closer you take towards the almighty. It's fine - after 15km of hiking, I am glad you have the chilled cucumber on a stick on White Goose Peak. Honestly, kudos to the porters. Even with a 20lb pack I had to inch my way along the trails like a wispy-white-bearded kung-fu master. Meanwhile porters were hauling hundreds of pounds of goods up and down the mountains (some of which were actually spoiled tourists in bamboo chairs). Hiking up Yellow Mountain was both breath taking and breathtaking. Many of the paths are shaded by pines growing straight out of the granite mountain side - a symbol of determination and hard work in China. Stairs flow around bends and up boulders, over the peaks and ridges, down valleys and through caves. Every new glimpse demands a pause. Various peaks glimmer as lovers have lashed golden locks baring their names to forever bask in the serene mountain views. When you finally stop to soak your face in the cool mountain streams, the very mountain itself echoes with the cries of those above you, “jia you!” or “step on the gas!” Sunset on the mountain changed the deep greens and rich browns to light blues and shades of violet. You almost felt out of place not trying to write a poem or transcend human consciousness. A meager college student, I did what any of us would do in such a situation: enjoy a bowl of hot ramen and make a toast with cheap beer.

White Goose Ridge

Sunset

Locks

Sunrise, a near mandatory event on Huang Shan, allowed us to see the “bai yun” or “sea of clouds” as the mountains slowly rose in and out of the morning mist, like giants stirring in their bedsheets. Being bold, a fellow student and I chose to take the ever more arduous (and therefore scenic) western steps as our means of decent. Descending into the fog gave way to views of stairs that lead to nowhere and trees that sprouted from the very air itself. A strong wind could suddenly reveal an entire mountain, while swallowing another. The highlight of our decent was an unexpected ascent up Heavenly Ladder Peak. Seeing it from afar, its stair ridden spire was almost comical. Watching fellow hikers gasp up thousands of steps only to disappear into the heavens itself conjured up images of certain works of art by Li Bai, Steve Oedekerk and Robert Plant. The highlight of the ascent was a section known as Heavenly Bridge, a 30ft section of mountain ridge no wider than a shoe box. With the fog at your feet, it gave the allusion of walking on clouds. That was until a strong wind revealed the 5,870ft fall on both sides and the less than reassuring weatherworn “safety rope.” The rest of the descent would prove to be just as dangerous with additional hairpin ridges, tight squeezes, and slick vertical steps that descended into a void.

Mist

Heavenly Ladder

Being in eastern China it is easy to have the illusion cast over you that today's China is comprised of swarming, hungering, metropolises burgeoning with factories and high rises. Yet one must only travel a few hours into interior China to see oxen wading through rice paddies, women hauling rickshaws full of hay, and monks in ancient mountain temples. The development in China is exciting, but like any progression it must be well calculated. Each step must be well planted. We are tempted to want it cheaper, quicker, sleeker. Yet hasty actions are easily worn thin over time. Only through understanding and appreciating the needs and desires of all of China, will we help build a global community that stands firm for future generations.


Chris Moon
University of Arkansas
Walton College Honors Program
Information Systems

Previous posts:
1) Headed to China
2) Orientation
3) The Fear of Life

Our First Blog Giveaway!

Want to win a prize from the Walton College and get more connected in the process? Then enter our blog giveaway! The rules are simple, and the contest will be open until July 31, 2009. We will then draw names and give away three prizes to the winners during the first week in August:

• First prize is a giclee Hog print, which was donated by our student-run business, SAKE. It is approximately 20” X 26”.







• Second prize is a Walton College desk set, which includes a silver notebook, pen, and travel clock.
  
  





• Third prize is a Walton College grab bag, which consists of the commemorative 10th Anniversary Arkansas Business Hall of Fame Dreams book, a travel-friendly spiral notebook, leather business card holder, commemorative note card set featuring Willard J. Walker Hall, pen, keychain, lapel pin, and Razorback stress hog.

To enter, follow these steps:

1. Become a follower of the Walton College on Twitter. You can find us @uawaltoncollege. If you are an existing follower, please indicate so in Step 3.


2. Become a fan of the Walton College on Facebook. If you are an existing fan, please indicate so in Step 3.


3. Leave a comment for this blog post and list your name, graduation year (if you are an alum), and your favorite memory from the Walton College – it can be a favorite professor, class, or even a student organization. Or perhaps this is where you met your future husband or wife! Leaving your Twitter username will also allow us confirm that you are a follower of ours.

Every person completing these three steps will receive one entry in our drawing. To receive extra entries, just do the following:

1. Send a tweet to your friends on Twitter telling them about our giveaway (be sure to mention @uawaltoncollege so you can receive credit). You will receive one extra entry for every tweet you send promoting our giveaway.


2. Become a follower of this blog. This will allow you to receive one extra entry.


3. Become an active member of the Arkansas Alumni Association. You will receive 5 extra entries if you renew your membership or create a new membership and let us know about it by leaving a comment on this post. Or, tell us you are already an active member of the Arkansas Alumni Association by noting this in your blog comment. We will confirm your membership status with the Alumni Association. If you are an existing member, you will also receive 5 additional entries in the giveaway.


4. If you are a graduate, join our Walton College Alumni Society group on Facebook. Joining will give you one extra entry.


5. If you are a graduate, join our Walton College Alumni Society group on LinkedIn. Joining will give you one extra entry.

Questions? Feel free to send an email.

That’s it, everyone! Good luck!

Where's Walton? In New York City!

Almost every year, the Walton College sends representatives from the Office of External Relations to the Big Apple to visit our alumni who live in the area. This year, Rachel Burton and I made the trip with our Dean, and - as usual - we had a great time!

Our trip started on June 15th with an Arkansas Alumni Association reception at Papillon Bistro where Chancellor Gearhart was the featured speaker. We met so many fantastic alumni at the event and even took a couple of pictures:

Michael Cawthon (BSBA '96), Chancellor Dave Gearhart, and Greg Durrett (BSBA '92)

Avinash Arun (MBA '05), Gary Tidwell (BSBA '74 & JD '77), Matt Hawk (BSBA '03), and Whitney Miller (BSBA '03)

The next day, our group split up so we could "divide and conquer" the city and visit as many Walton College alumni as possible. Dean Worrell and I started our day by visiting Brian Green (BSBA '94) at JP Morgan Investment Management. Brian, who is a former member of Dr. Kennedy's portfolio management class, is married to another former portfolio management student, Robyn Wright Green (BSBA '94). Brian is a board member for the Garrison Financial Institute Advisory Board and Robyn has served as a mentor to students through our Career Development Center.

While Dean Worrell and I were visiting with Brian, Rachel met with Peter Tannenbaum (BSBA '84), an Executive Director with JP Morgan. Peter is originally from New Jersey and ran track while at the University. Although he has since returned to his hometown in New Jersey, he still returns to campus at least once a year with his family to cheer on the Hogs and visit friends.

Next, Rachel and I had lunch with one of our Business Alumni Advisory Council members, Ivats Stoichkov (BSBA '03). Ivats is originally from Bulgaria, works for Citigroup, Inc., and just completed his MBA with the Stern School of Business at NYU. Congratulations, Ivats!

After lunch, Dean Worrell and I had two appointments at Ernst & Young, which has been a great supporter of ours in the past. One alumna we met with during our time there was Cheryl Flowers Sparkes (BSBA '78), who is a member of our Dean's Executive Advisory Board. This past spring, Cheryl was the recipient of an alumni award from our Accounting Department.

Meanwhile, Rachel met with Matt Hawk (BSBA '03), who is a vice president of sales and marketing for Markit. We hope to involve Matt more in the future when our finance students visit New York each fall. Matt may also be writing a guest post for us on our blog later this month.

For dinner that evening, Dean Worrell and I enjoyed the company of Bob (BSBA '76) and Maureen Stella. Bob is an executive vice president with CresaPartners and a past president of the New York chapter of the Alumni Association. Across town, Rachel had dinner with Mike (BSBA '02) and Brooke Reynolds. Mike is a Trader with SpireTrading and is a member of our Business Alumni Advisory Council. Both he and Brooke are very active in the New York chapter's activities and are always a lot of fun to visit with!

The next day, Dean Worrell returned to Fayetteville while Rachel and I wrapped up our appointments. We had lunch with Jeff Honea (BSBA '83), who was recently featured in our spring issue of Business Perspective. Jeff works for the MTA and took us through Grand Central Terminal, where we ended up taking this picture. Look for Jeff's profile feature on the Walton College web page!


Finally, Rachel and I met with Michael Cawthon (BSBA '96), who is a former member of our Business Alumni Advisory Council. Michael has his own company and is originally from Little Rock. He returns to Fayetteville quite often during the year and would probably be one of the first to admit that it's a charming place you won't soon forget.

After three exhausting days, we made our way back to The Hill. We were so grateful for all of the "Southern hospitality" we received in New York. It's amazing how you never feel very far from home when there are Razorbacks around!


Jennifer Holland
Associate Director of Development

Adam Norwood & Jiger Patel - Conference Wrap-Up

Adam Norwood and Jiger Patel are two Walton College students who attended the National Enterprise Computing Community Conference in Poughkeepsie, New York, from June 20-25. Links to their previous posts can be found below this one.

On Wednesday, June 24th, the National Enterprise Computing Conference wrapped up and Adam & I began our trip back home to Fayetteville, taking the train back from Poughkeepsie to New York's Grand Central Terminal. This was followed by our return flight to Arkansas from LaGuardia.

Poughkeepsie, NY was the perfect place to have the conference, as it was only one and half hours from New York City via train. I found the town and surrounding area very beautiful since it was located along the Hudson River between beautiful mountains! Now that I am back in Arkansas, I'm hoping that I can visit Poughkeepsie again sometime in the future.

In retrospect, the conference was very informative for me in regards to mainframes & other enterprise technology. After attending this conference, I now understand that 'mainframe technology' does not necessarily mean an obsolete technology. Through the ECC conference's many informative technology presentations, I've learned that mainframes are critical in over 80% of Fortune500 companies for their proven security & reliability. They are also taking on a number of roles that might be surprising, including growing major roles in even Web 2.0 technologies like cloud computing and multiplayer online gaming. With all the modern technologies that mainframes can (and are) providing all in one package today for businesses, it is clear that the mainframe holds a great career opportunity for students.

In conclusion, after the conference, I now have a much clearer idea of what the mainframe is and what the benefits of mainframes are. This is something that I can now take back with me to Fayetteville as I complete my studies.

Jiger Patel
Sam M. Walton College of Business
University of Arkansas

Previous posts:
1) Blogging from Poughkeepsie
2) Day 1 in Poughkeepsie
3) Start of the ECC Conference
4) The Conference Continues

Buckley O'Mell - Social Media in the Professional World / Part 4: An Ongoing Case Study

Buckley O’Mell is a 2002 graduate of the Sam M. Walton College of Business and a 2005 graduate of the University of Arkansas School of Law. Buckley now lives in Little Rock where he works as a commercial real estate broker and developer for Flake & Kelley Commercial and is an active member of the Walton College Alumni Society. Buckley will be guest blogging for a series of posts about various forms of social media and how they are affecting the workplace. Links to his previous posts can be found below his signature.

PART IV: Ongoing Case Study—Adopting Social Media Tools at Flake & Kelley Commercial

Back to the opening line of my first post on Monday from a coworker regarding social media: “I’m not sure I get all of it, but I know we need to be a part of it.” While I and several others in my office are very much a part of it, the company, itself, is not. But we’re working on that. We’ve just launched an updated company website that includes a blog, which will focus on news relevant to the commercial real estate world. It’s still brand new (it went live on Monday) and very much a work in progress, but our goal is to cover everything from discussions on the local economy to the planned opening date of the newest stores and restaurants in the area. We’ll mix in news stories from local publications that are relevant to commercial real estate. We’ve also created a company account on Twitter so we can notify followers when we have a new blog post. We already have a Flake & Kelley LinkedIn page, and we have a healthy debate going on as to the merits of a Facebook page as well. (The jury is still out on that one for reasons discussed in Part II of my posts, but I think we’re leaning in favor of it). However, just having a blog, Facebook page, or Twitter account is meaningless unless you know how to use these things in an effective manner to market yourself and your business. Like with any new business tool, there will be a learning curve, but we’re ready to take on the task.

Ready or not, these new forms of media are here, are relevant, and will continue to grow increasingly as more companies, nonprofits, politicians, and individuals realize the potential of utilizing these tools in productive ways. Many of these applications might eventually become as commonplace as email. For now, there are a limited number of companies using social media, and those companies often use it in a very limited way. However, from a business perspective, I’d rather be ahead of the herd than following it.


Buckley O'Mell
Flake & Kelley Commercial
Little Rock, Arkansas

Previous posts:
1) Part I: Blogs
2) Part II: Social Networking
3) Part III: Twitter

Buckley O'Mell - Social Media in the Professional World / Part 3: Twitter

Buckley O’Mell is a 2002 graduate of the Sam M. Walton College of Business and a 2005 graduate of the University of Arkansas School of Law. Buckley now lives in Little Rock where he works as a commercial real estate broker and developer for Flake & Kelley Commercial and is an active member of the Walton College Alumni Society. Buckley will be guest blogging for a series of posts about various forms of social media and how they are affecting the workplace. Links to his previous posts can be found below his signature.

PART III: Twitter

By now, I imagine most everyone has heard of Twitter, even if they aren’t exactly sure what it is, given its constant mention by anchors at CNN and other news stations, its routine use by the Obama campaign during the last election, and more recently the role it played in getting information out of Iran. From the standpoint of normal, everyday use, Twitter is relatively young and can still tend to be all over the board in the type of information you can receive. However, when utilized properly, it can be a tool that ties all of the other social media tools together.

The trick is all in whom you follow; otherwise, you could end up wasting time reading pointless personal updates. As Blake Rutherford (@blakerutherford) puts it, “Follow the right people and you’ll start to see Twitter’s value as an information sharing mechanism unlike anything Facebook or Google can offer, at least right now.” Twitter can take information from all over the Internet and funnel it into a single interface, making it much more efficient to stay informed. No longer must I scour Drudge Report (@Drudge_Report) or CNN.com (@cnn) for new headlines, nor do I need to check the various blogs to see if any have posted new stories. Utilizing a program on my desktop called “TweetDeck,” as well as a similar application for my Blackberry, the Twitter updates (known as “tweets”) I’ve received over the past few hours act as a scrollable list of headlines from Arkansas Business (@arkbusiness), the Wall Street Journal (@wsj), Politico.com (@thepolitico), and NPR (@nprnews) - to name a few - as well as from all of the blogs I follow, including those I discussed a couple of days ago and the Walton College blog (@uawaltoncollege). Having TweetDeck running on my desktop offers no more distraction than does a new email notification popping up. If something peaks my interest, or seems relevant to my life or job, I can link directly to the story without having to sift through all of the other content on those websites.

The news doesn’t just come from publications or blogs either. It also comes from friends and other individuals who have something interesting or valuable to share and have chosen to do so by tweeting rather than sending an email blast. The risk in following friends, of course, is that some of them will treat it no different than they would a Facebook status update providing trivial personal information. If you find this to be a waste of time, one option (aside from simply de-following them) offered by TweetDeck is the ability to create “groups” whereby you can select a smaller group of people to display, rather than viewing everyone you follow. The group I typically follow is made up of only news sources and a few “news makers” such as local politicos.

Like Facebook, Twitter will continue to evolve. It’s not perfect, but as time goes on and its popularity spreads, I think that it will be used more efficiently. There is no question in my mind that Twitter will grow as an important part of how we communicate and receive information.

Buckley O'Mell
Flake & Kelley Commercial
Little Rock, Arkansas

You can follow Buckley on Twitter at @bomell.

Previous posts:
1) Part I: Blogs
2) Part II: Social Networking

Chris Moon - The Fear of Life

This summer, the Walton College is proud to feature Chris Moon, one of our information systems students, who is guest-blogging for us while he embarks on a Study Abroad experience in China. The following is the third post from Chris. Links to his previous posts can be found below his signature.

Travel is never without a wrench in the gears. Over the last week I have been wrapped, drained, injected, sterilized, and medicated. Blame goes to me for eating off of the backstreets of Hongkou. Shanghai, I have learned, is not to be taken lightly. For purposes of exemplary edification, imagine New York City. Now add five million more people. Now copy and paste 1970's Los Angeles air quality. Now make it rush hour. Now remove everyone's breaks. You're almost there. Crank up the thermostat to 113º and make sure the humidity is high enough to warp wood.

Classes here at the Shanghai University of Finance of Economics offer no retreat from the intensity of the city. My Mandarin course is taught in rapid-fire Chinese via Ms. Hang and Zhang to a background of “No English” signs. Managing Enterprises in China aims to explain the idiosyncrasies of Chinese businesses through the study of China's commercial history and various case studies. I've learned that China's business is guided through a different set of laws known as Guanxi, or what we commonly call "networking" and "building face." Apparently, the Chinese judge the worth of something through three steps: its value to social relations, its reasonability, and finally its legality. Banks do not lend money to those without Guanxi. Consequently, unpaid debts result in the nullification of your reputation via a black list. As Dr. Dong stated, "In China, not business is business, business is life." Maybe that's why my roommate sleeps with his school clothes on. My roommate, who goes by “Frodo,” is like many people I have met here so far: incredibly humble and thoughtful. He always denies any form of thanks, assistance or payment for his help. In the end I have to literally force my gratitude upon him before he accepts. It's thoughtfulness almost to the point of masochism, and it requires me to stay abreast of his needs. In order to understand Frodo, I must become Frodo. The jewel is in the lotus... hummm...

This weekend, some of the students were interested in scratching the underbelly of Shanghai. So, after securing entry and a guide, we headed down to the subterranean “fake market” below an undisclosed location in Shanghai. Ok, ok, so there were neon signs everywhere, but it was still riddled with innumerous passageways and secret compartments full of fake name brand goods. Now I don't support the infringement of copyrights or trademarks, but let's just say I know a guy, who knows a guy, who might have bought a fake swiss watch. Bargaining here is a fire-sale. The starting point for any good haggle is 10% of whatever they originally throw at you. When you low-ball them, they scream in disgust. This is when you walk away. The drop in price in relation to your distance from the seller would form a perfect inverse correlation.


Recently the People's Republic of China blocked Google and all Google-related services after heated debate between the two parties came to a boil. I can only imagine the shock wave that traveled through the financial areas of Pudong and Puxi, as businessmen mashed keyboards and wiggled Ethernet cables. Additionally, China announced that, starting July 1st, all computers produced in China will come pre-installed with filtering software code named “Green Dam Youth Escort.” Countless American universities have warned against the giant gaping hole this leaves in China's IT security. Such news seems to have fallen on deaf ears as all systems are still go. It's easy to forget, that behind all the billions of dollars flowing through town, there is still the “invisible hand” of a defunct communist government pulling a string or two. Consequently, such occurrences have provided ample opportunity for foreign investors to succeed where the government has failed.

For me, this trip has been a test. This isn't eating cheese in the Alps or dealing with the language barrier in Australia. Shanghai has put my body and mind through the wringer. Admittedly, I fear for the next day at times, for the next white knuckle cab ride, fear for the next time I have to swallow one more Imodium. But like the 20 million people shuffling around me, it's the fear that drives me to keep waking up to five million chaotic scooters, to lay down another RMB to see the Bund at sunset, or to chew up another salted chicken claw from a street vendor. As Dr. Dong told me, “Everyone should have a fear; the fear of life.”

Chris Moon

University of Arkansas

Walton College Honors Program

Information Systems

Previous posts:

1) Headed to China
2) Orientation