JohnsonDiversey execs give UWP students world view
UW-Parkside students get world view from JohnsonDiversey execs
What
challenges and opportunities face marketers in the Pacific
Rim? What is it like doing business in the European Union? In
Asia-Pacific?
Although University of Wisconsin-Parkside faculty members are knowledgeable on these subjects, their students recently received a new perspective on the world during a special afternoon of classes featuring JohnsonDiversey executives. The Sturtevant-based company, a leading manufacturer and marketer of commercial cleaning and hygiene products worldwide, had more than 100 of its top executive in town for a global leadership conference and brought two dozen of them to campus both to teach and to learn from students.
"If you go back into the history of the Johnson family enterprises, giving back to the community is part of what the company is about and it's laid out in something called 'This We Believe,'" said JohnsonDiversey President and CEO Ed Lonergan in explaining the visit. "So, today we've got a group of people building two houses for Habitat For Humanity; we've got a group of people at Halo which is a women's shelter. And then we thought: 'Wouldn't it be a great idea to give something back to the future leaders of our company and bring people from around the world [to campus] and have a chance to interact with the students at Parkside.' There's no grand purpose but we think we'll get a lot out of it and we hope the kids will get something out of it."
And so, JohnsonDiversey's
Ed Kennedy, Julie Tay, and Sam de Boo visited Peter Knight's 1 p.m. marketing
class to talk about "Opportunities and Challenges Related to the Pacific
Rim;" Tom Determan's 2 p.m. advanced cost accounting class welcomed Scott
Putnam and Chris Slusar who talked about the "Sarbanes-Oxley Act and
Ethics;" Farida Khan's economic development class heard from
JohnsonDiversey's Spence Berry and Peter Eppen on "Entrepreneurship in
Economic Development." A total of eight classes and two panel discussions
brought hundreds of students in contact with the company's leaders.
Lonergan and his executives also learned about UW-Parkside's Ralph Jaeschke Solutions for Economic Growth (SEG) Center. Business professors Tom Witt and Michael T. Manion gave an overview of the SEG Center which matches business students with companies and non-profit agencies on a project basis. Students Harrison Idowu, Nicole Norris, and Zak Smith then walked the executives through a market research project they conducted for Modine Manufacturing of Racine.
UW-Parkside School of Business and Technology Dean Fred Ebeid said the four and a half hours student spent with JohnsonDiversey executives reinforced the university's continuing efforts to help students develop an awareness of global employment opportunities.
"What
we're hoping to do is open students' eyes to opportunities that are beyond the
local region. The education we're providing here will help prepare them to be
leaders globally, not just locally," Ebeid said.
"Having JohnsonDiversey here is a tremendous benefit because they literally have their executives here from around the world," Ebeid added. "So students have access to their expertise."
When asked if
he would advise UW-Parkside students to learn Mandarin or Hindi to better
compete in the global marketplace, JohnsonDiversey President Lonergan said, for
his company, the so-called BRIC markets--Brazil, India, Russia, China--are vital
to future growth as are the N12 Countries.
"Our Asia president is here and we'll talk with your students about the number of hires that we're making at this point," Lonergan said. "We're investing in those areas. We're also looking at 'The N12'--the 'Next 12 Countries,' that would include Mexico, Turkey, etc. We think, not just BRIC, but developing countries in general have significant potential for the future. And if you don't win there now, you're not going to win in 30 or 40 years when they are a significant part of the global economy."
Lonergan was
among the JohnsonDiversey executives participating in a pair of informative
panel discussions on the company's global focus. He joined Clive Newman, Chuck Crawford,
Richard McEvoy, and Phil Stephenson to talk with students about the "Global
Integration by JohnsonDiversey." As heads of different functional areas
within the company, the panelists discussed their responsibilities and
explained how they interacted with each other to address the company's
international needs. Later, Lonergan, Ed Kennedy, Moreno Dezio, Yagmur Sagnak,
and Matt Nakanishi paneled the discussion "Global Expansion by
JohnsonDiversey." These corporate leaders, representing different regions
of the world, discussed their responsibilities and explained the growth agendas
for their respective geographical area. Moderated by UW-Parkside's Michael T. Manion,
both forums provided students with an informative view of JohnsonDiversey's
operations in the global environment.
Other classes whose students benefited from JohnsonDiversey's expertise included Gary Wood's Chemistry class which heard from the company's Peter Angevaare and Chuck Crawford on "Employment Opportunities for Young Chemists and What We Should Be Doing to Prepare Them;" Tim Knautz's Web Concepts class welcomed Kiran Vedak and Donna Santoro for their talk on e-commerce; Jamie Wang's Intermediate Accounting class hosted Ed Kennedy, Sam de Boo, and Tan Kian Woo as they addressed "Doing Business in Asia-Pacific;" Tom Schnaubelt and Dirk Baldwin whose Community-Based Learning class heard from Greg Bell on "JohnsonDiversey and Community Responsibility;" and Wang's Advanced Accounting students who were advised about "Doing Business in the EU" by Angevaare, Spence Berry, and Clive Newman.
The JohnsonDiversey executives' visit to UW-Parkside came on the opening day of the company's Leadership Council meeting. It was held Sept. 26-28 in and around Sturtevant and Racine.