May 16th, 2012 by Alissa under General, Post-EMBA Experience, Uncategorized. No Comments.
I always get excited for commencement at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business! It was two years ago that I walked across the stage to receive my executive MBA with my Smith EMBA Cohort 9 family. It’s hard to believe that two years have passed and that the MBA students who started after I graduated are now getting their MBA degrees. It goes by in a flash – I was reading something somewhere how students always rush to graduate, and then spend the rest of their lives looking back nostalgically on the fond memories of their years in college.
Please join us on Sunday, May 20 at 5:30 p.m. in the Comcast Center to celebrate the achievements of the Smith School’s Class of 2012. All are welcome – no tickets needed. I’ll be there to videotape the happy grads in a special highlights video.
More details are online at: http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/commencement
Can’t make it? Watch online at: http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/WatchMeGraduate
Tags:Smith School News.
May 11th, 2012 by Alissa under EMBA Experience, General, Personal Growth. No Comments.
I think that this week has been the week of “Uggghhh.” Don’t ask me why. Maybe I am just more in tune to that utterance for some reason. But I have seen it written, heard it groaned and felt it myself this week more than any other in recent memory.
If you have taken any college course you have probably learned about the time-money-quality philosophy of project management. You are never going to get the best of all three. Want it in an hour? Then it will cost you in either quality or money. Want it to be perfect and reasonably priced? Then you have to wait a month. Many of us find ourselves in the position where expectations are that we can deliver a product with high efficiency on all three levels… and it just can’t happen. If you are lucky and you can get all three from someone, be grateful because the person who is providing the service to you may just eventually have a meltdown.
Everyone wants to do great work and no one wants to make a mistake. Adjust your expectations to get the best work out of your people and it is a win-win for everyone involved!
May 8th, 2012 by Alissa under General, Personal Growth. No Comments.
Since I have a blog, why not take advantage of it to get a few things off my chest that I will categorize as “Pet Peeves” in a funny off-topic post that has nothing to do with anything, really.
A Few of My Pet Peeves:
1. Police officers who set up speed traps during rush hour when there is already stop-and-go traffic, making it exponentially worse. Rubber-necking is bad too, but I have absolutely no respect for police officers who hang out on the side of the highway causing bigger back-ups. Thanks for making my best-case-scenario 40-minute commute more than an hour most days.
2. Cleaning people at my work who hang out in the women’s restroom on my floor. The only benefit is that I get exercise walking up and down flights of stairs to find an open bathroom everyday. Speaking of bathrooms…
3. People who talk on their mobile phone in the public restroom. Seriously, what are you thinking? I find that students do this frequently.
4. People who don’t do what they say they are going to do, on purpose. Forgetting is one thing, but most people would rather hear the truth straight up. Being agreeable all the time won’t win you friends or trust if you aren’t sincere. Which leads me to….
5. Lack of integrity. Integrity is adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty (per Dictionary.com). I am shocked by the number of people I have witnessed telling a bold-faced lie. Maybe I’m naive, but do these people really think that they will get ahead by being dishonest? In EMBA we learned that one of the most important characteristics of a transformational leader is integrity.
6. Viewers of reality TV shows who don’t vote for the best option. No explanation needed.
7. Parents who think they are too important to follow the school rules. I am specifically directing this rant to parents at my kids’ elementary school who put all of the children in danger by refusing to park in the designated parking spots for drop-off and pick-up and instead drive down the one-lane alley to get a few feet closer to the entrance door during construction. Safety, first; convenience, second… please?
8. Turning your problem into my problem. My friend at work gave me this handy phrase to put next to my monitor: “A lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.” That leads me to my next point…
9. Not helping yourself. I can’t help you effectively solve your problem if you haven’t put any effort into the solution yourself. Likewise, I shouldn’t complain about my problems if I haven’t tried to fix them.
10. People who act superior. Ok, we all know that people who act superior are really just overcompensating for their feelings of insecurity. But in any event, it’s annoying. The Church Lady act is funny on SNL, but who wants to deal with that in everyday life? Maybe reading this list makes you think I’m acting all superior… if you think I am, then maybe it’s because you have personally identified yourself as a perpetrator of one of my “Pet Peeves.” Ouch. The truth hurts.
→ Any “Pet Peeves” you would like to share, blog readers? I’m sure I will come up with more later and want to post them, so I’ll be keeping a running log in the comment section of this post.
Tags:pet peeves, sound-off.
May 7th, 2012 by Alissa under General, Post-EMBA Experience, Uncategorized. No Comments.
On Saturday, May 19, at Fallsgrove Park in Rockville, MD, my very good friends Pete Plotas (Smith EMBA ’10) and Alison Thien Plotas will be hosting a charity walk – Seek & Find Dr. Bear Family Walk – for the BE GREAT Foundation to benefit the Center for Diagnostic Immunology & Transplantation at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
The BE GREAT Foundation is dedicated to Alexander James Plotas who died on September 21, 2011, at 13 months of age due to respiratory complications from a severe form of immunodeficiency after a successful bone marrow transplant.
Visit BE GREAT Foundation on Facebook or http://www.begreatfoundation.org/ for details and to sign up for the walk.
Please join us on May 19 from 10 a.m. to noon: Every child deserves the chance to BE GREAT!
Tags:charity, executive MBA.
May 7th, 2012 by Alissa under General, Social Media. No Comments.
Over the past few weeks, we have been doing a Facebook blitz to increase our fan base at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. Using the Facebook “Insights” dashboard, we can tell that our reach has increased more than 400% over the past month. We went from reaching around 5,000 people a week to more than 20,000 at the end of April, and we gained about 1,000 new “Likes.”
We introduced two new Facebook contests in April. The first is the Smith Photo Contest, where the community submits photos to help decorate the school’s building, Van Munching Hall. The entire process is easily managed by a Facebook App powered by Offerpop. Friends can share entries on their pages and vote for their favorites once a day. The other contest is a “Where’s Testudo?” game in which a photo clue of a hidden Testudo stuffed animal is posted on Facebook and fans need to hunt him down. He has instructions attached to him and the finder has to post a photo of with him on Facebook. Each of these contests has been very successful with creating a buzz around our Facebook page and promoting community engagement.
Today, I was reading a really interesting article in Ad Age about Facebook and company brand posts. Facebook to Brands: You’re Posting Stuff Wrong.
“By far, the biggest predictor of engagement was that the post was on a topic relevant to the brand,” said Sean Bruich, head of measurement platforms and standards at Facebook. “It impacts everything, from lightweight likes to more invested shares. It’s actually one of the most important things a brand can do. People are seeing the content because they liked the brand, and it makes sense that content about the brand will get them engaged.”
Sometimes I see official posts that are unrelated to our brand on the Facebook pages that I oversee for the Smith School. We have best practices, guidelines and strategies written for Facebook postings, so all I can do is cringe in embarrassment when I see an inappropriate post uploaded under the Smith School domain. One day I was very surprised to see a random photo of an employee’s puppy posted on an official Smith School Facebook page. The caption didn’t even try to make any relevant connection as to why the photo was posted. It’s pretty obvious that cute puppies don’t sell b-schools. However, maybe cute little baby turtles would work for Maryland.
Tags:facebook.
April 30th, 2012 by Alissa under General, Social Media. No Comments.
Awhile ago I posted how to get your Twitter into an RSS feed.
Here’s the way to get your YouTube videos into an RSS feed:
https://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/base/users/SmithBusinessSchool/uploads
Replace SmithBusinessSchool with your channel username.
Tags:RSS, youtube.
April 20th, 2012 by Alissa under General, Uncategorized. No Comments.
Rudy Lamone addresses the crowd at his special celebration on April 19, 2012
Last night, I was able to attend a very special celebration for a man who has had more impact on the Robert H. Smith School of Business than any other person: Rudy Lamone.
You may be asking yourself, “Alissa, did you forget about the school’s namesake Robert H. Smith?” He donated millions of dollars to the school and without a doubt that money – along with donations from Leo Van Munching Jr. – helped to make the school what it is today. I was able to meet with Bob Smith on several occasions and he was indeed an amazing man. I was impressed not only by his intellect, but by his drive to do good and make a positive impact with his philanthropy and see the results. But without Rudy Lamone’s passionate leadership for almost a half century, the Smith School may never have reached the level of excellence for someone like Bob Smith to recognize his alma mater in such a profound way.
Rudy served as dean of the business school from 1973 to 1992 and founded the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship in 1986. It was Rudy’s foresight that got the Smith School where it is now: one of the top business schools in the world. The Smith School is consistently ranked in every single ranking medium; in the top 20 in many academic categories, top 10 in research. The school hit its first major ranking under Rudy’s leadership, and has been in the mix ever since. To be ranked at all means that a school is in the top one percent of all business school — the majority of business schools never see any ranking list at all.
Rudy has been a mentor and friend to thousands, including me. A lucky 150 were able to attend a special celebration for him last night in Van Munching Hall in honor of his more than 45 years of service to the University of Maryland and the Robert H. Smith School of Business. Just a few months ago Rudy celebrated his 80th birthday, so it was the perfect timing to announce the formation of the Rudolph P. Lamone Chair for Entrepreneurial Leadership, to be awarded for demonstrated thought leadership in innovation and entrepreneurship.
Featured speakers of the night focused on Rudy’s amazing legacy with fond memories and a shared theme of impact that he has had on them as individuals and the greater community. Carly Fiorina, former CEO of HP and Smith MBA grad 1980, said that Rudy has a special gift: “He sees the potential in other people. Rudy Lamone changed my life.”
At the celebration, one thing was immediately evident. The love for Rudy in the Smith School community runs deep. There were alumni from all decades, current students, faculty, staff, former administrators traveled in from across the country. People didn’t want to leave. Around 10 p.m. I finally left with a feeling of awe and immense appreciation for the man that we all know simply as: “Rudy.”
Rudy Lamone Celebration - Photos Courtesy of Robert H. Smith School of Business
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Rudy Lamone Celebration, Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, April 19, 2012 - Photos Courtesy of Robert H. Smith School of Business
See photo highlights from my live tweets at #RudyCelebration
Do you know Rudy? Share your own memories at http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/RudyCelebration
Check back soon here for a link and to the Smith website for the official highlights story with video and professional pictures.
Tags:Rudy.
April 16th, 2012 by Alissa under EMBA Experience, Post-EMBA Experience. No Comments.
This spring, Pete Plotas, a fellow classmate in EMBA Cohort 9, and his wife Alison launched the BE GREAT Foundation, dedicated to Alexander James Plotas who died on September 21, 2011 at 13 months of age due to respiratory complications from a severe form of immunodeficiency after a successful bone marrow transplant. The BE GREAT Foundation enables advancements in curative treatments for children with immune deficiency by supporting improvements in bone marrow transplantation, medical equipment and educational programs for parents. The purpose is to improve the lives and medical outcomes of children with immune deficiency, which affects tens of thousands of children and deprives them of their healthy tomorrows. Join me, Pete and other EMBA alumni on Saturday, May 19 for a one mile “at your own pace” family charity walk on the Rockville Millennium Trail to find Dr. Bear and other surprises hiding on the trail. Visit http://www.begreatfoundation.org for details.
Tags:charity, EMBA Experience.
April 15th, 2012 by Alissa under General, Social Media. No Comments.
Many times the outcome of me doing my job to the best of my ability means that you may not be completely happy with the outcome. I need to promote things that are interesting to my audience and align with my brand messaging and strategic priorities. If I’m not consistent, chaos ensues. That’s why there is a strategy behind it. Fortunately, social media is more forgiving than many other forms of marketing and communications. Many times my colleagues in PR will send their cast0-offs my way when there is nothing else to do with them. “Well, at least we can put it on Twitter, right?”
But, sometimes you have to tell people things that they don’t want to hear. Maybe their lifelong work is really not all that interesting to the general public and that it isn’t going to be in The New York Times — it isn’t even going to be on the home page of the school’s website. Giving people a reality check is not easy. Much of my work is company promotion of internal assets, consultation on methods of self-promotion and sly trickery to try to get third-party promotion and/or endorsements.
How do you get to a win-win solution?
First, is the person helping themselves? It’s hard to help someone if they aren’t already promoting themselves to their own circle of influence – there is a niche for everything. If you are trying to promote something that is important to you, it’s probably important to others that you know — even if the Wall Street Journal passes on it. Send a personal e-mail to the people in your address book. The most successful people I’ve worked with have started up personal blogs to promote their passionate interests. The blogs have led them to great success in mainstream media outlets. Blogs offer many benefits, one of which is subject and personal credibility. If the person is actively involved in their own promotion, that’s the first step in social media success.
You can promote yourself, your company can promote you, but if you get someone else to sing your praises, that’s the icing on the cake… and that’s the beauty of social media. On Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn it is easy for someone else to find you and promote you! Once you have started promoting your activities, others will notice. If your passion is cancer awareness, but you only read books about it, how can you advance the cause? Make a blog, join Facebook groups about it, Tweet about it, join LinkedIn Groups. Join real support groups. Become an active member online and in real life in causes that you are passionate about.
Once you’ve gotten yourself all-in to win, how do you get the support of others? Well, ask for it. Social media is all about cross-promotion, re-tweeting, sharing links, liking other posts, etc. If you don’t share your thoughts, the entire thing would collapse… so don’t be shy, take a chance! Stop being a voyeur and join in the game.
Tags:facebook, LinkedIn, marketing, Social Media, twitter.
March 27th, 2012 by Alissa under General, Post-EMBA Experience. No Comments.
Last night I was able to hang out with about a dozen people from my EMBA cohort at a fun dinner in D.C. at Old Ebbitt Grill. I am not hip to the D.C. scene, but I could tell right away that this was a hot spot. Their website says, “Old Ebbitt Grill is just steps from The White House and museums in downtown Washington. Established in 1856, it was a favorite of Presidents Grant, Cleveland, Harding and Theodore Roosevelt and is still a popular meeting spot for political insiders, journalists, celebrities and theater-goers. Its Beaux-Arts facade, mahogany and velvet booths and bars set in marble, brass and beveled glass are Washington at its finest, and The Oyster Bar at Old Ebbitt is D.C.’s most famous.”
Yeah – we fit in just fine with our executive MBA faux snobby attitudes. I thought that it was much more reasonably priced than I would have guessed going in, and the crab cake was excellent. But the best part was catching up with my EMBA buddies who I haven’t seen in awhile. As with any group, many people hit the majority of the events and some people you don’t see as often. It was nice to see some new faces at this event and it made the evening extra special. I’m looking forward to our next school sponsored event on April 17 where we meet up with the current students in the mentor program.
Tags:EMBA Experience.
