College of Business News

The Sioux Falls Business Journal recognized the top 10 up-and-coming young professional leaders in the Sioux Falls area in March 2009, which included College of Business (CoB) alumnus, Ryan Rickert. The largest city in South Dakota, Sioux Falls, with a population of more than 150,000, boasts many young up-and-comers, with only ten making the list.

Rickert (’06, marketing), says that his career path started before graduation, the summer after his third year at MSU, when he was hired on with the Sioux Falls Storm, a professional football team affiliated with United Indoor Football. Starting out as the “special events coordinator” after graduation, Rickert eventually worked his way up to his current position of Vice President/General Manager (VP/GM) after just six seasons.

Rickert enjoys many things about working for a sports team. Being the VP/GM allows for different work situations, and he likes that his day is never the same. Another favorite part of his job is that the team includes charity events with everything they do.

Rickert says, “We have a great fan base and they support anything that we support…so we get to use that to our advantage and spread goodwill to many different organizations and individuals. Annually we donate more than 10,000 volunteer hours and $150,000 to these groups.”

In addition to all the charitable work Rickert does directly through his job, he also serves as a mentor for Junior Achievement and as a chair on the Sioux Falls Fit Club. This group will be going to a Haitian orphanage in November to GPS (Global Position System) the surrounding mountain homes in an effort to put into place a preventative measure for the protection of the families in the area. Rickert will also spend time teaching young men in the village how to swim and he will be bringing with him gear that will allow the young men to safely fish/dive for their shrimp traps. The seafood in turn feeds the children in the orphanage as well as struggling villagers from nearby farms.

On the other hand, the most challenging aspect of Rickert’s job is plain and simple–managing money. Rickert says that profit margins are thin and players’ injuries have the biggest impact on the team’s bottom line. In order to mitigate this largest factor, the Storm’s facilities have one of the strongest medical facilities in the league along with intense health training and nutrition for the players.

Rickert credits the CoB with preparing him to succeed in the business world. He learned, and fine-tuned, many of the business skills he uses in his day-to-day business interactions in the classroom. Rickert remembers positive interactions with professors throughout his time with the CoB and says that they guided him and molded his business mind. In particular, Mike Gold’s advertising course, with its hands-on, real life experience and involvement, had a huge impact on Rickert. Many of the CoB classes Rickert had taken (sales, marketing, and business communications) converged with this course, where he put all those skills to good use.

Rickert adds, “[The] CoB helped relate things to real life and made them easy to apply in a real life situation. I seriously owe much of my current success and future success to MSU’s CoB!”

For students interested in pursuing a career in sports and in general, Rickert stresses the importance of being involved in a diverse amount of activities to gain a broad perspective of things and accumulate a variety of skill sets. He also mentions the importance of stepping outside your comfort zone but to always perform as though your boss and grandparents are always watching. Rickert also emphasizes the importance of internships, saying they are a great way to get on with a team and are not extremely difficult to find. He adds, “Many teams want a couple years experience and the internship is the best way to get it. I have hired several volunteers/interns over the years because I was able to put them to the test and see how they perform. It takes the guessing out of a resume and interview.”

Rickert encourages all recent graduates and current students to find jobs in their areas of interest and to be tenacious. He says, “Be fearless…Always go above and beyond. People are always watching and you never know who is looking up to you. You never know who will respect your hard work and remember it down the road. Life is all about maintaining relationships and networking. Be true to yourself and be honest with others.” If Rickert’s advice is taken seriously by CoB students and alumni, they may find that they are able to become as successful in the business world as he is.

News

Every semester, the MSU College of Business (CoB) administers a standardized test that compares its senior business students’ scores to those of others across the nation, and our students are measuring up extremely well.

The CoB first started administering this test in 2005 and so far the average scores achieved by our seniors have consistently been at or above the 90^th percentile as compared to the averages at over 500 Colleges of Business who have their students take the MFT. In fact, the spring 2009 cohort (141 students) scored in the 96^th percentile overall.

The Major Field Test (MFT) – Business, administered by Educational Testing Services (ETS), the same testing facility that administers the SAT and GRE, is taken by CoB seniors enrolled in the Senior Seminar (a required course usually taken during the final semester before graduation). This test is designed to measure a student’s knowledge of business and their ability to apply significant concepts, theories and analytical methods to practical business problems.

Students can compare their individual performance on the MFT to that of approximately 250,000 other business students from more than 500 other institutions across the nation.

The MSU CoB, which is accredited by The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), was granted full unconditional reaffirmation of its accreditation in the spring of 2008. Dr. Bill Brown, professor of business management, mentions the importance of our students’ performance on the MFT-Business. “One of the central tenets of our mission is that we seek to provide our students with knowledge of current business practices and theory and to be conversant in the language of business. Instead of asking [the AACSB] to take our word for the fact that we are doing a good job of that, this test is a way to compare the business knowledge and skills of our students to students around the country.”

Students, who typically take the electronic test during their final semester of school, are able to get immediate results, which indicate their placement among all other students participating. They can also see how well they individually scored in sub-categories, such as the business option they are enrolled in or economics.

Alan Poole (’06, business marketing) recalls his experience with the MFT. “The CoB professors do a very good job of providing a well rounded education. Even though you may be in a finance class, a marketing class, a management class, or an accounting class, the professors go beyond the scope of that subject to apply the terminology to real world business scenarios. I think that is what helps us to do so well on the field test. It is basically a culmination of four years of study.”

“We have really excellent students. They are hard working, they are conscientious, and they respond well to the course of instruction,” says Brown. He continued, saying that in seeing such scores, “We are reassured that we are getting something right about our curriculum and approach to teaching.”

News

The Montana Society of Certified Public Accountants (MSCPA) held their annual meeting on June 17-19 in Helena. Montana State University (MSU) College of Business (CoB) alumna Kyla Stafford was appointed President of the Board of Directors for 2009-2010. CoB alumnus David Sutherland was appointed to the Board of Directors for a three-year term.

Stafford graduated from MSU with bachelor degrees in accounting and Spanish, as well as her masters in professional accountancy. In addition to her work as a CPA, Stafford is a Certified Fraud Examiner. She is currently a shareholder in the Bozeman office of Anderson ZurMuehlen & Co.

Stafford is very active in the Bozeman community, volunteering in fundraising events for the Children’s Museum of Bozeman, the Museum of the Rockies and the Bozeman Deaconess Foundation. She also serves on the Finance Committee for the Greater Gallatin United Way.

Sutherland has been a member of the MSCPA since 1985 after graduating from MSU with a degree in accounting and is currently a shareholder in Stahlberg and Sutherland, PC, in Kalispell. He has served as a member of the Continuing Professional Education Committee for 23 years. In his spare time, Sutherland is active in the Kalispell community, coaching various youth athletic teams.

The MSCPA is a professional association comprised of more than 1,800 members worldwide. MSCPA’s mission is to promote and safeguard the interests of its members and to assist all members and the profession

in providing the highest quality accounting services.

News