Business
School of Business:
Upcoming Events
THURSDAY, Nov. 5
12:15 P.M. - 1:00 P.M.
Speaker: Jessica Fiorelli
Event: PwC - Public Accounting
Location: REDC 101
TUESDAY, Nov. 10
12:15 P.M. - 1:00 P.M.
Speaker: Kathryn Nusbaum, CFA, CPA
Event: "True Wealth and Measuring
Your Personal Balance Sheet"
Location: REDC 180
THURSDAY, DEC. 3
12:15p.m. - Loo P.M.
Speaker: Lori Rodgers
Event: "Expatriate Taxation and High
Net Worth"
Location: REDC 101
World & National
Business News
Three MG executives get
bonus "ok" from pay czar
NEW YORK -- MG told Feinberg
that three executives, who were enti
tled to large retention payments, were
particularly critical to the company's
long-term financial success and
should be able to keep their bonuses.
Feinberg said Thursday that he re
lented in the case of MG even though
he was able to pare down similar pay
clauses at the other six companies in
his purview.
When it came to AlG's request, Fein
berg said he thought long and hard.
In finally agreeing to the special
cases, he said that paying those em
ployees bonuses was in the public in
terest, since they were needed to help
MG pay back the government.
In exchange for allowing them to
keep their retention bonuses, Feinberg
trimmed their 2009 salaries for the last
two months of the year and for 2010.
Nokia sues Apple for
alleged patent infringement
DELAWARE -- Nokia, the world's
largest mobile phone manufacturer,
today launched a legal attack on Apple
in the US courts, alleging the iPhone
infringes 10 of its patents. The move
could cost the Californian technology
firm tens of millions of dollars.
The two companies have been
locked in long-running negotiations to
agree a deal that would see Apple pay
a licence fee to use technology Nokia
developed, which is fundamental to
the way a mobile phone works and is
already in the iPhone. Talks failed to
reach a settlement and Nokia has filed
a complaint against Apple with the
Federal District Court in Delaware.
Beacon Business Staff
Business Co-Editors:
Harmilee Cousin III; Garrett Carson
Business Writers
Arica Christman
Shawn Browne
ECONOMICS
Tuition a paradox for new generation
It is not news or a surprise to any
one that the U.S. economy has been
anything but good for the past two
years.
With the stock market down and
U.S. companies downsizing, educa
tional institutions have still managed
to raise tuition costs
for students. Since
alumni and endow
ment funds have
started to shrink
along with the econ
omy, colleges seem
to have decided to
transfer the burden
from alumni and
gifts to students and
their parents, when
it comes to funding
the institution
College Board has
recently released its
"Trends in College
Pricing 2009" and
estimated that tuition and fees for an
in-state public college are approxi
mately $7,020, which is pretty accu
rate compared to Behrend. Here at
Penn State Erie, juniors and seniors
pay about $6,915 in tuition a semester
and underclassmen pay about $5,971
BUSINESS CLUBS AND ORGANIZATIONS
Throughout the next couple of issues, the Beacon will explore the student clubs and organizations within the Sam
and Irene Black School of Business. Many of these clubs offer programming such as guest students, events at the
REDC, and student networking opportunities, as well as offer a fantastic addition to any business resume.
Penn State Behrend Marketing Club expands in 'O9
As a student organization, the puf
pose of The Marketing Club at Penn
State Behrend is to allow college stu
dents interested in the field of mar
keting to organize for mutual benefit.
The Marketing Club aims to en
gage in various social and service ac
tivities, assist in marketing and
promoting other campus organiza
tions when asked and to develop bet
ter public understanding and
appreciation of marketing principles.
- Business Week
- Guardian.co.uk
SHAWN BROWNE
ANNA SMIALEK
A Idriccting Cluh 1 , :i! of Public Relation
Business Intentshq3B ava dab to :
' t
Business and Technology 2010 Summer Internships Honest Tea, Inc.
Investment Technology Group, Inc. Road Warrior Summer Internship
Carbon Capture Advocacy
Intelligentsia Internatiohal, Inc. More information on internships and full time positions can be found online at:
littp://www.pserie.psu.edu/student/cdcioncampusrecrulting.htm
per semester, which does not include
additional fees: technology fee, stu
dent activities fee and the recently
created facilities fee.
businecs writer
Comparatively, Behrend is slightly
below the nation's average when it
comes to tuition, but with the addi
tion of the fess, sits about equal.
According to the Associated Press,
"during the period covered by the
College Board report,
consumer prices de
clined by 2.1 percent.
So accounting for in
flation, the latest in
crease at public
colleges felt closer to
a nine percent jump."
This uneven in
crease between infla
tion rates and college
tuition is going to be
quite the burden for
students graduating
this academic year
and entering the
An entire
generation faces
unprecedented
challenges during
a vital period
of their lives.
workforce.
Thousands of stu
dents have been having difficulty for
the past two years trying to find jobs
in their fields. Many are returning
home to the jobs they had during the
summer and even back in high
school.
For a generation supposedly re-
The club also organizes outings
and volunteers for various service
projects. Some of the outings planned
for the club this year are a bowling
night with other business clubs,
THON Canning weekend Oct. 23-25
and the business trip to New York
Next business issue:
The Beacon explores
the Accounting Club.
sponsible for taking over the country
and filling in for those baby boomers
"retiring" soon, the country is not
providing much support for the stu
dents.
Upon graduation students are ex
pected to start paying back the thou
sands of dollars, which can range
anywhere from $15,000 to $45,000 for
some Behrend students, approxi
mately six months after graduation.
However, this repayment is going
to be very difficult for some when no
job and only career fairs and recruit
ing websites in the future.
According to the Wall Street Jour
nal, "Economic research shows that
the consequences of graduating in a
downturn are long-lasting. They in
clude lower earnings, a slower climb
up the occupational ladder and a
widening gap between the least- and
most-successful grads."
Research has also shown that stu
dents graduating in harsh economic
times suffer difficulty in obtaining
competitive salaries compared to
those fortunate enough to graduate
just a few years earlier.
However, not every aspect of grad
uating is negative. Graduation means
no more new loans, no more 8 a.m.
classes, and if worse turns to worst,
parents' homes are usually filled with
food and a free bed.
City in Spring 2010.
The Marketing Club also hosted a
Q&A session for speaker John Moore
on Tuesday, Oct. 20th. Moore, a pre
vious member of the Starbucks mar
keting team, currently leads a
consulting firm that helps create ex
citing new branding strategies for
companies nationwide. He spoke to a
packed room of students in REDC
180, giving advice on business strate
gies and success tips. To learn more
about The Marketing Club and for
event updates, visit the club online at
www.clubs.psu.edu/bd/mkt.
BEHREND BEACON
October 23, 2009
www.thebehrendbeacon.com
BUSINESS SPEAKER
Climbing
from Rock
Bottom
John Moore shares
Steps to Success
ARICA CHRISTMAN
Starting off at rock bottom means that
one can only go one direction and that is
up. This is certainly true for John Moore,
former marketing officer for Starbucks
and Whole Foods
Market. Moore
started off as a
barista behind
the counter, mak
ing the specialty
drinks at Star
bucks that people
all around the
country enjoy.
Believing in the
passion and pur
pose of the com
pany is what Contributed Photo
helped catapult John Moore
him to the top
and make him a
valuable employee to both Starbucks and
Whole Foods Market. Moore shared
what one may call his secrets to earning
a "talkable" brand and successful com
pany. He believes that this success is at
tainable through 3 tricks of the trade
Trick 1: "Remarkable things get
remarked about."
In other words, make your product
stand out to consumers. This was a main
goal for Starbucks when designing a plan
for marketing objectives. The company
wanted to change the way the world
drinks and thinks about coffee.
Trick 2: "Earn opinions from your
customers."
Moore believes that a company's per
sonality is its best form of advertising. In
order to succeed in earning an opinion
and voice, a company needs to differen
tiate itself from competitors. This means
being confident that your personality will
be liked more than it is disliked. Star-
bucks created a personality by defining
itself as a company that produced high
quality coffee. They caught the attention
of customers by having cup sizes listed as
"short, tall, grande, and venti."
Trick 3: "Build a
business rather than a brand."
In Moore's opinion, a business de
signed solely to make money will fail.
However, if a company is working to
make meaning as well as profits it will
grow and become successful.
There are many ways to achieve suc
cess in business. John Moore is a prime
example of building success from the
bottom to the top. He believes that the 3
factors are especially important for cre
ating a "talkable" brand. Moore also
adds that having passion in everything
you do and the things that you believe in
are important qualities for success. "You
get out of something what you put into
it."
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