0  

Online program offers skills for digital transformation

Rapid advances in digital technologies have the potential to transform how every industry, business and organization operates. To help technology leaders prepare, Cornell has developed a Digital Transformation certificate program.

In this program, participants will learn how to find and produce new and streamlined disruptive business ideas through digital auditing and a rapid ideation process, as well as pitch ideas and develop plans to rigorously test and evaluate each opportunity to ensure market suitability.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for business leaders and entrepreneurs to build new ventures and transform industries and organizations enabled by these technologies,” said faculty author Karan Girotra, professor of operations technology, information and management at Cornell Tech and at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business.

“Digital technologies lend themselves to rapid iteration, low-cost development and experimentation, and businesses need to learn a new way to build products enabled by these technologies. It’s a key skill set for any digital era builder.”

This program consists of seven two-week courses, including:

  • Preparing for Digital Transformation;
  • Rapid Ideation;
  • Generating Opportunities for Digital Disruption;
  • Developing and Pitching Ideas;
  • Value Creation and the Business Model Canvas;
  • Prototypes and Pilots; and
  • Experimentation Planning.

Participants who complete the program will receive a Digital Transformation Certificate from Cornell Tech and 70 professional development hours. Visit the eCornell website for more information.

  0  

New certificate program develops key negotiation skills

Negotiation is a powerful tool, and can help people steer their personal and professional lives toward success.

Yet according to a survey by LinkedIn, more than 40% of U.S. employees say they don’t feel confident in their negotiation skills, and 25% say they’ve never negotiated for themselves in the workplace.

Recognizing that a lack of negotiation skills can stifle a career, Cornell has developed a new online certificate program. Negotiation Mastery will help professionals improve negotiation abilities through the introduction of practical tactics and tools, peer exercises and expert instruction.

“The ability to effectively negotiate is critical,” said Allan Filipowicz, co-author of the program and associate dean for executive education at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. “It increases a person’s chance of getting the job or salary they want, making a business deal that benefits them and much more. It’s a lifelong skill.”

“This program will teach you how to advocate for yourself to get better deals, while at the same time enhancing personal or business relationships,” said Tony Simons, program co-author and professor at the School of Hotel Administration.

Available online through eCornell, this program consists of six three-week courses:

  • Introduction to Negotiation
  • Integrative Negotiation
  • Psychology of Negotiation
  • Preparing for a Negotiation
  • Power Dynamics and Ethics in Negotiation
  • Complex Negotiation

Upon completion of the program, participants will earn a Negotiation Mastery certificate and 60 CEUs. To learn more about this program, visit the eCornell website.

  0  

Certificate program develops understanding of beer selection

The craft beer industry is exploding. Consider this: New breweries open at a rate of more than one a day, giving people access to a broader selection of ingredients and flavor profiles to taste and explore.

This presents a challenge for restaurants and bars, which must reevaluate their beer offerings in order to stay relevant to the expanding taste buds of their clientele.

In response, the School of Hotel Administration has launched a Beer Essentials certificate program to help hospitality industry professionals develop the end-to-end understanding of beer production, tasting and selection necessary for establishing an effective beer program.

Applicable to anyone with ties to craft brewing, this program will provide in-depth knowledge of the beer industry, including how to analyze and make informed decisions regarding beer selections.

“Customers expect more diverse choices now than what they’ve traditionally been given,” said Douglass Miller, faculty program author and lecturer at the Hotel School, who has more than 30 years of industry experience.

“This program will provide a comprehensive look at developing an effective beer program,” Miller said, “from ingredients and process to sensory analysis, to serving, training and sales.”

The Beer Essentials program consists of four two-week courses:

  • Beer Ingredients and Production
  • Beer Styles
  • Establishing a Beer Program
  • Beer Sales and Training

After completing the courses, participants will earn a certificate from the Hotel School and 40 professional development hours. Visit the eCornell website to learn more about this program.

– Bailey Karfelt

  0  

Online brand-management course offered through eCornell

Key to the success of any business is how well its brands are managed. Brand perception drives decisions and actions, making brand management one of the most important aspects of business strategy.

Cornell’s online Brand Management certificate program is ideal for business and marketing professionals, and provides the essential framework to build, manage and enhance a brand.

“This program takes a comprehensive look at brand management, enabling participants to develop a strategic approach to running their brand,” said Chekitan S. Dev, program co-author and professor of marketing in the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. “Understanding and analyzing the purpose of your brand … and how it will achieve success is crucial to the long-term success of any business.”

“Every touch point with a consumer conveys brand meaning and should build the brand,” said Patti Mandel ’83, M.B.A. ’85, program co-author and visiting lecturer at the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management. “This program covers how to develop a deep understanding of the brand and the world in which it exists.”

Available online through eCornell, this program will cover critical aspects of brand management. The certificate program consists of six two-week courses:

  • Brand Purpose
  • Brand Strategy
  • Brand Positioning
  • Brand Planning
  • Brand Activation
  • Brand Measurement

After completing the six courses, participants earn a brand management certificate from SC Johnson. Visit the eCornell website for more information.

  0  

Cornell launches online entrepreneurship program

To bring a startup business to market, an entrepreneur needs to assess the viability of their concept, develop a strategic framework and navigate the due diligence required to finance it.

On Nov. 19, National Entrepreneurs Day, Cornell launched a new Entrepreneurship certificate program, designed to develop the necessary knowledge and skills to take a new idea from theory to realization.

“Ideas are easy to come by, but the real challenge comes in getting them off the ground,” said Tom Schryver, program author, visiting lecturer in the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, and executive director of the Center for Regional Economic Advancement. “This program will help students understand how startups raise capital to execute on their plans, both from the perspective of an entrepreneur seeking to raise money as well as from the point of view of an investor looking to make an investment in a startup.”

The program will enable participants to structure a business model to protect their interests, assign fair valuation to an opportunity and secure funding. Participants will also explore many types of funders, from equity and angel investors to venture capitalists, crowdfunders and grant programs. Courses in this program include:

  • Assessing Startup Viability and Funding Options
  • Pitching Your Business Opportunity
  • Protecting Your Interests
  • Financial Planning, Valuation and Dilution
  • Company Structure and Due Diligence
  • Post-Investment Best Practices

After completing the six courses, participants will receive an Entrepreneurship certificate and 60 professional development hours. Visit the eCornell website to learn more about this program.

— Bailey Karfelt

  0  

Understanding fear and courage

Courage is less of an innate character strength than it is a skill; an individual can intentionally develop courage when the right skills are in place. In the words of Nelson Mandela, “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.”

Erica Dawson, Professor of Practice at the Cornell College of Business, recently gave a Cornell Keynote examining courage and fear, and how to put both into perspective.

Courage is defined as having four components, Dawson explains. First, an action needs an uncertain outcome; if we knew how something was going to work out, it wouldn’t require courage. Second, the person must be fearful, which relates to the third component, the presence of a perceived or real risk. The fourth and final component is that the individual perceiving a risk and feeling fear where the outcome is uncertain, then takes action. This, Dawson says, is courage.

However, she cautions, courage does not mean leaping blindly. Taking calculated risks, gathering information to use in decision-making, and monitoring the downside are all important steps. If a person takes these steps and still cannot fully manage or control the outcome, the element of courage is required. Having courage is taking action when the stakes are high and the result uncertain.

Courage can further be categorized into three different forms: physical, psychological, and moral. Physical courage includes a physical act, such as rescuing someone from a fire or entering a situation perceived as dangerous. Psychological courage is an act that includes a psychological risk, wherein one admits to a mistake or risks making others comfortable. Moral courage is the ability to do the right thing and stand up for personal values, even if it comes at a cost. Most often, Dawson finds that individuals need to draw on psychological and moral courage.

One way she advises us to conquer fear and further develop courage is to identify the fear, which can enable an individual to recognize the irrational aspects and manage the rational ones. The act of stopping to take a deeper look at an immediate emotion, in order to get to the root causes of it, can help.

Dawson gives the example of learning to skydive: “I attended classes, and I did a progression of jumps to get my license. Debilitating fear then set in. I created my own failure through fear.”

Dawson explains she identified the rational fear associated with the risks of skydiving, and took time to consider the fact that she trusted herself, her equipment and her teachers. “And then, this thing I had feared switched to a joy.”

For more information on the topics of courage and fear, watch the full-length keynote with eCornell or learn more about the Engineering Leadership Certificate program, developed by Dawson.

  0  

New online Digital Photography certificate program

Capturing great photographs takes more than a good camera or the right Instagram filter. To be a successful photographer, one must master a variety of observational and artistic techniques, as well as become intimately familiar with photography’s technical elements and professional workflows.

Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning is launching a new Digital Photography certificate program, aimed at building professional photography skills and knowledge. Available online through eCornell, the program will explore everything from the mechanics of the camera to the digital programs used for editing, as well as help students strengthen the self-discipline, concentration, and critical thinking mindset essential to good photography.

Composed of seven courses, this certificate program will cover the fundamentals of photography, explain how to choose the right camera and use it, explore the digital tools available today and deep dive into lighting, style and expression, and best practices. Learners will examine standard camera features and develop a toolkit of techniques for creating different types of photographs to meet their expressive goals.

“This certificate program is designed to build essential photography skills, learn best practices and develop a professional approach to photography, whether using it commercially or for personal reasons,” says Barry Perlus, program author and Associate Professor of the Cornell College of Architecture, Art, and Planning.

Perlus is a recognized artist and educator who employs photography and digital imaging in his artistic practice. His work embodies a keen interest in observation and interpretation, using elements of scale, perspective, light, color, and abstraction to create new interpretations.

Learners will benefit from expert insight into various image management programs and how to create an efficient workflow. Best practices will be shared on the nuts and bolts of professional photography, including legally protecting work, designing websites and developing a social media presence. By the end of the program, learners will have gained the necessary skills to achieve their professional or personal goals as a photographer.

Courses include:

  • Photography Fundamentals
  • Camera Selection and Mechanics
  • Digital Asset Management
  • Lighting
  • Style and Expression Through Photography
  • Building a Photography Portfolio
  • Professional Photography

After successful completion of the seven courses, learners will receive a Digital Photography certificate from Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art and Planning. Learn more about this program.

  0  

Advice from the Real Estate Roundtable: Real Knowledge, Real Experience

The commercial real estate industry can feel opaque and even intimidating to outsiders and newcomers. Armed with a bit of practical guidance and the right analytical tools, however, anyone can learn to navigate real estate investment and development.

To learn more about the integral components of commercial real estate, eCornell hosted a special roundtable event with lecturer Jeanne Varney, professor Jan deRoos and lecturer Brad Wellstead from Cornell’s SC Johnson College of Business. Here’s what they had to say.

What are the risks associated with real estate development?

Varney: Real estate development is a time-intensive process. It’s years of planning and construction. The designers, general contractors, architects, and engineers all have to work together to get everything finished. There’s the cost of capital itself, and the financing. Then there are unforeseen conditions, like market dynamics. There are also risks related to liquidity.

Wellstead: In the beginning, the primary risks concern the development. Next, there are schedule, budget, and quality issues to consider. Then, there are risks concerning the internal factors of the development team. There are external risk factors too.

So, from an investment standpoint, why is commercial real estate thought of as relatively sound?

deRoos: If you’ve completed your foundational work correctly, a good asset in a good market with good political support and good financing can produce solid returns for a long time. The retail industry is a recent example of how the world can change: it slowly changes, then all of a sudden there’s a tipping point.

Let’s talk about property prices and how to negotiate when properties are sold.

deRoos: Property pricing is based on expectations of what will happen in the future. It’s the intersection of two things: the cash flow that one can derive from an asset and how the capital markets treat those cash flows. When negotiating a price between a buyer and seller, first you’ll negotiate price. Once you have a tentative agreement, the focus turns to the balance sheet.

deRoos: The first rule of real estate is never fall in love with something that doesn’t love you back. That requires you to know the price at which you could sell it to the market. If it’s worth more to you than it is to the market, you hold it. If it’s worth more to the market than it is to you, sell it. The best asset management discipline is to do that rigorously on an ongoing basis.

Wellstead: It’s important to determine if you are in this for a quick turnaround, which in real estate might be two to three years, or twenty years. This decision influences how you manage that asset.

deRoos: Some create a lot of wealth for themselves by being flippers, and some create a lot of wealth as operators. A flipper is concerned about creating value and exiting at the right time. An operator is focused on leasing activity, taking care of tenants, and enhancing the property value.

Switching gears, what are the most important things to focus on when raising debt capital?

deRoos: You need to maximize your proceeds. In U.S. real estate, non-recourse means that the lender’s only recourse is to foreclose on real estate if you default. You get a free option to sell the real estate to the lender for the remaining balance, which is a bit cynical, but it’s also a very real option. You really need to limit your recourse as much as possible when you borrow.

Why is it more advantageous to raise debt capital over equity capital? What’s the variation in risk?

deRoos: Debt is cheap. Think of it this way: I want to buy something for $100. I have $30 of my own money. I need to raise $70. If I bring in a partner, they want to help me drive the bus. If I bring in a lender, they have their hands pretty far off the wheel of the bus. A lender is much less expensive.

Why is raising equity capital so hard?

deRoos: The hardest thing in life is asking someone to be your life partner. The second hardest thing you’re going to do in life is to ask someone for money. Investors are giving up liquidity. It’s really hard to get your money out. Investors give up control. They have to trust you to do the right thing to produce returns for them. You need to make that attractive by putting a structure in place that gives you all of the returns after I pay debt until you achieve a certain required rate of return, and then I get paid handsomely. It’s called a promote structure, used very commonly in private equity.

What about investment strategy advice? How do you know whether you’re making a good investment?

deRoos: Figure out how you add value and then add value to it. Ask yourself the following: “How will I add value? Do I know design? Do I have unique access to money? Do I have unique relationships with tenants? What is my value-add?” Then partner up with other people who can bring another piece to the table and do the things that really add value.

Finally, let’s discuss the economics of sustainable development.

Varney: There are growing legislative requirements when it comes to sustainable development. There’s a much greater level of education with all of the service providers, architects, engineers, designers, or manufacturers. Some municipalities even have requirements for building certifications like Green Globes or LEED certifications. They have expediting permitting processes for projects that are sustainable. There’s even a growing field for green lending.

More efficient equipment translates into less energy costs, so hopefully higher profitability, or more reliable debt service. There’s also solid research that shows sustainable buildings have higher leasing occupancy rates and higher leasing rate rental rates. Healthier indoor environments means less toxins and more efficient equipment. A LEED certified building is a higher quality building. We call it a halo effect or a positive reflection on the company.

For more information on real estate and investments, check out eCornell’s certificate programs designed by deRoos, Varney and Wellstead, including Commercial Real Estate and Hotel Real Estate, or watch the full Cornell Keynote, A Real Estate Roundtable, here.

  0  

5 tips for improving your public speaking presence

Do you have the presence of a leader? Are you comfortable public speaking? A vital skill in business and life is the ability to genuinely connect with others, yet many are intimidated at the thought of standing and speaking before friends or peers.

eCornell’s Chris Wofford interviews Cornell professor David Feldshuh (March 26, 2019).

David Feldshuh, Theater Professor and Artistic Director of the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts at Cornell University, can absolutely relate to this.

“I was extremely shy,” admitted Feldshuh, “but I decided to get over my fear of public speaking by going to drama school and becoming a professional actor.” Learning from these techniques, Feldshuh invented his own method of training people to have a presence, communicate, and connect, and ultimately become more effective when speaking on any subject, in any place, and to any audience.

Feldshuh discussed a few tips for refining public speaking skills in a recent webcast with eCornell, Executive Presence: the Lifelong Process of Public Speaking.

1. Take Up Space

Public speaking requires becoming comfortable with taking up space. Feldshuh suggests practicing simple exercises, including posture, centering, balance and stillness. “Your head is high, your shoulders are wide, you’re balanced. You reach out, you ‘catch rain’. Your shoulders come back. Relax… Think about yourself as a pendulum; side to side, until you come to a point of stillness.”

2. Freedom of Expression

Executive presence should be authentic, Feldshuh advises. You must have freedom of expression and access to a range of vocal and physical communication skills. Recognize and become familiar with your own gestures and sounds; you want to use your voice and body without fear or self-consciousness. Relax your face, breathe, and smile.

3. Magnetism

Feldshuh defines magnetism as “the ability to bring variety to how you present yourself so people want to hear more.” It is important to connect with your audience, and understand how each person is different. Change your delivery as needed; take a moment to ask yourself what you want from that person, and make that connection.

4. Performance

Not everyone can be a magnificent speaker, but Feldshuh says the measure of success is being able to see and believe in yourself as competent. The easiest way to do this is to observe yourself – ask a friend to take videos of you presenting, or ordering something from a menu. The more you acclimate to seeing yourself, the more you become comfortable with your own voice and gestures.

5. Practice

Becoming an effective speaker doesn’t happen overnight. Feldshuh encourages individuals to take the time to become self-aware of their habits, and learn techniques to change those habits and develop new ones. “Record it, look at it, change it,” says Feldshuh. “You’re coaching yourself, and that’s the measure of success.”

This method is the basis of Cornell University’s online certificate program, Executive Presence. Over the course of fifteen weeks, students learn to refine their public speaking skills through the act of analyzing their own performance, performing exercises and practicing transformative techniques.

  0  

Certificate program combines tech, financial services

Financial institutions are increasingly using new technologies to deploy existing resources to deliver transaction, payment and asset-management services.

To capitalize on these rapidly expanding innovations in financial technology, Cornell has established a new FinTech Certificate Program. Participants will not only identify key advances in the fintech landscape, but also analyze opportunities in financial technology and blockchain.

“Silicon Valley and Silicon Alley are … leading the charge into fintech with blockchain technology and machine learning,” said program author Ari Juels, the Weill Family Foundation and Joan and Sanford I. Weill Professor at Cornell Tech. “Those working in financial services should take heed.”

“Advances in technology have revolutionized the way the financial sector does business, and, by extension, how we all do business,” said Drew Pascarella, associate dean for MBA programs and senior lecturer of finance at the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management. “It is imperative that everyone within the financial services ecosystem understands these key trends.”

Financial services professionals, consultants, software companies who sell to financial services and others in the banking and financial sectors will find value in this certificate program, available online through eCornell.

The FinTech Certificate program consists of four two-week courses, including:

  • FinTech Disruptions;
  • Trends in FinTech;
  • Cryptocurrencies and Ledgers;
  • Cryptography Essentials.

After completion of the four courses, participants will earn a fintech certificate from Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, and 40 professional development hours.

– Kristi Gaylord