What’s Ahead in ACUMEN
Interactive Marketing: Where Are We Headed in 2008?
Your Next Career Move? A Mini MBA®
Grasp the Big Picture of the Retailing Industry
Leadership Programs for Supervisors and Middle Managers
Get on the FastTrac® to Business Growth and Success
Lean and Project Management: Your Quality Improvement Solution
Advanced Topics in Finance
Get Savvy about Business Communication
Programs for Real Estate Developers and Investors
Opportunities for Nonprofit Executive Directors and Board Members
Nonprofit Employees Can Attend the Multicultural Forum for Free
Featured Program
What’s Ahead in ACUMEN
The ACUMEN newsletter articles are in many ways a reflection of our faculty and staff research, what is happening in our executive education classrooms, our curriculum, and what we are currently doing inside organizations to realize their visions and set them apart from the competition. As valued customers and subscribers, we would like you to have the benefit of knowing what subjects will be covered in forthcoming ACUMEN issues to keep you always informed about what is underway right now at the University of St. Thomas.
Here is a sneak peek at what is to come:
- Corporate Governance – Board governance and corporate leadership are commonly addressed topics, but we will address the concept of making corporate governance the overarching principle that combines strategy, culture, and ethical principles for all people in an organization.
- Change Management – Many corporate initiatives die on the vine, or sorrowfully whither as old paradigms re-surface and smother genuinely beneficial programs. We will explore how to keep mutually agreed upon programs alive, healthy, and result in measurable behavior and outcome changes.
- Capital Markets – Larger companies often have access to timely information on various types of capital and its availability, while smaller companies read about driving forces in the market through newspapers and journals. We will focus on the resources available to small and medium-sized business owners to help them design and implement their financing strategy.
The latest entries into the collection of new media channels known as interactive communications are mobile marketing, game marketing, podcasts, and RSS feeds. If you do not know what some of these things are, it is probably time to get up to speed because these tactics make up the marketer’s new toolkit. Given the changes in consumer interests and communication channels, is traditional marketing going away?
Click here to read about two major trends in marketing for 2008.
Career coaches say one of the most effective ways to move up to the next level of management is to learn new skills. Good career moves take planning and preparation, and the sooner you invest time in broadening your skill set and knowledge, the sooner you will demonstrate that you add value to your organization.
The Mini MBA® Program provides you with the relevant, timely knowledge the business world demands. Our faculty will help you develop your business skills while giving you the tools to improve your job performance and prepare you for higher-level decision making.
Find out more and register for the Mini MBA® Program.
Become a more valuable contributor to your company by broadening your understanding of the retail industry. Frame your organization’s issues within a larger context to improve your operational results and increase the bottom line with the Mini Master of Retailing Excellence program. Join professionals from companies such as Target Corporation, Best Buy Co., Talbots, and Cooks of Crocus Hill in the first program of its kind to be offered in the Midwest.
Find out more and register for the Mini Master of Retailing Excellence.
In response to the growing need for strong leadership in the competitive global market, the University of St. Thomas has created a portfolio of leadership programs designed to meet the unique needs of leaders across positions, departments, and industries. Supervisors and middle managers need the leadership development opportunities to foster personal and professional growth, align their management practices with the company vision, and efficiently direct human capital, which is why our upcoming programs focus specifically on these two groups of leaders.
Find out more and register for:
Leadership Skills Series: Coaching and Mentoring
Leadership Skills Series: Public Speaking and Presentations
Do you have a vision for a new business? Is your current business ready to grow, but are you unsure about how to manage its growth?
The University of St. Thomas FastTrac® Programs are designed especially for entrepreneurs and small business owners looking for guidance, skills, and knowledge to ensure the success of their ventures.
Find out more and register for:
Lean and Project Management: Your Quality Improvement Solution
Whether your organization’s operations and quality management system employs Lean or Six Sigma methodologies, the goals are always the same: to improve processes, increase customer satisfaction, and enhance financial performance.
The Center for Business Excellence’s upcoming operations programs help you meet this quality management goal.
Find out more and register for:
Mini Master of the Lean Enterprise
Project Management: Cost Management
Project Management: Quality Management
Microsoft® Project: Integrated for Certified Project Managers
Mini Master of Project Management
Project Management: Risk Management
Design, Development, and Evaluation of Training
For finance managers and directors seeking advanced training, the University of St. Thomas offers an array of finance and accounting programs designed to help you make better financial decisions and understand the impact of your actions on the value of your organization. We provide programs in advanced financial management and CMA review.
Find out more and register for these upcoming programs:
Too often, business professionals lack the skills to clearly communicate their agendas and ideas, resulting in poor projects, mix-ups, ineffective marketing, and dissatisfied customers. With an ever-increasing amount of e-communication, strong communication skills have become more vital than ever before to sustain positive relationships with your team members and your customers, to maintain professionalism, and to achieve your business goals.
Find out more and register for:
Current real estate market conditions have forced many real estate developers to re-examine their business strategy to edge out the competition. The popular Mini Master of Real Estate Development provides valuable tools and the application of specialty skills and techniques essential to successful development. The Mini Master of Investment Real Estate provides a comprehensive curriculum on the most critical practices and skills employed in investment real estate brokerage.
Find out more and register for:
Opportunities for Nonprofit Executive Directors and Board Members
Are you ready to start your own nonprofit organization? Would you like to refine your leadership skills as a nonprofit executive director or board member? In upcoming weeks, learn the “nuts and bolts” of running a nonprofit, explore meaningful executive leadership practices, discuss the board’s role in fundraising and finance, and create meaningful partnerships and alliances in the following nonprofit programs.
Find out more and register for:
Mini Master of Nonprofit Finance
Institute for Executive Director Leadership
Getting Started: Basics and Beyond of Starting a Nonprofit
Board Development: Legal Mistakes that Generate a Tax Bill from the IRS
Making Partnerships Work: Creating Inside/Outside Alliances in Nonprofits
Nonprofit Employees Can Attend the Multicultural Forum for Free 
Due to a generous sponsorship from M&I Bank, scholarships are available for nonprofit employees to attend the Multicultural Forum on Workplace Diversity. Employees of nonprofit organizations with budgets of $1.5 million or less are eligible to apply for sessions on February 20 or 21, 2008. Co-hosted by the National Black MBA Association-Twin Cities Chapter and presented by Best Buy Co., the event offers career and resource fairs, keynote speakers, ten seminars, and 48 workshops designed to raise awareness and promote a diverse workplace environment.
Dates: February 20-21, 2008
Days and Times: Wednesday-Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Location: St. Paul RiverCentre
For more information and to apply for a scholarship, call (651) 962-4385 or visit www.stthomas.edu/mcf/registration/scholarships.html.
ACUMEN© Copyright 2008 Center for Business Excellence.