While completing my MBA at St Joseph’s University, Professor Richard George opened and ended each semester by asking “With the knowledge you gain today, the most important question is how will you act differently because of what you have learned?” This simple but profound question struck a chord with me and has become the cornerstone of my teaching philosophy. Obtaining information in this age of the internet is easy and instantaneous; students “Google” for answers and seek out information through endless social media channels. My teaching goal goes beyond delivering knowledge; it is getting students to act differently with the knowledge and skills delivered in my courses. This is why and how I teach.

I emphasize in all my courses the relevance and usefulness of each topic for real world situations and practical problem solving. The learning objectives for each course I teach in Marketing, Entrepreneurship and Family Business are coupled with contemporary issues and cases. Technology allows me to keep current with the most important developments in business and incorporate them into the class virtually real time. A recent business article on the increased efforts of brands marketing through “student brand evangelists” on campus became a relevant tie back to the construct of the Consumer Decision Making process in one of my marketing classes.

Every course I teach has a semester long project which is framed to apply the constructs presented. The students acquire not just static knowledge but a set of skills to achieve the project’s objectives. Marketing courses, for example, have a project specifically designed to incorporate course topics as building blocks in developing a brand. Students are required to identify the key learning objectives they are applying as well as why and how these objectives affect the successful outcome of their project. The requirement to demonstrate the tie backs insures that the students read text materials and absorb class lectures. This allows me to identify a comprehension issue earlier rather than later and to schedule additional time with the student, either in person or through video conferencing.

Lectures are the starting point for me to contribute my professional experience as I frame concepts in a manner that is relevant to the current business and economic climate. The use of class blogs, video lectures and other technology gives me the ability to go beyond the physical class room. The course blog is utilized to facilitate discussion among students between scheduled classes. In my Retail Marketing course I might choose the topic of Impulse Purchase and pose a task on the blog which requires the students to select a category, perform an audit at two stores and address on the blog the differences in impulse purchase tactics. This (1) frames impulse purchase within a merchandising strategy to be relevant and (2) requires the student to tie back their experience to what was addressed in the class lecture and/or text on retail merchandising strategy.

Each class I teach has fundamentals that are required to be understood early within the course. These concepts are not always interesting to the students and my challenge is to develop curriculum to expose fundamentals in a relevant context. For example most people recognize that family businesses are unique yet they are not aware of the fundamentals which make family businesses different and difficult to work with. The underlying principle in my Family Business Management course is for students to understand and then apply the Family, Business, Ownership (FBO) overlap (Venn diagram). Early in the course, simple case studies illustrate why this overlap causes family businesses to have generational sustainability issues and explains what appears to be irrational decisions not explained by traditional business methods (financial, management, etc.).

Books and lectures are necessary to communicate the fundamentals of each course. Tests have a role in insuring that concepts are understood. The tests for the courses I teach go beyond memorization to applying the knowledge in business situations. The ambiguity in the real world of business illustrates why tests and exams need to include elements that address framing issues beyond either true/false or multiple choice. An example from one of my exams is the application of the Competitive Positioning Map. In order for students to achieve a good grade they must first articulate the academic definition of the map and how it used in marketing. They then must correctly apply the map in a real world marketing situation by selecting a consumer category, a series of brands within the category and the variables used in the map. Success for the student is developing the map with real brands and validating the map development with a tie back to the learning objectives in the book.

Each semester all of my syllabi are updated to address current best practices within Marketing, Entrepreneurship and Family Business. I obtain tremendous satisfaction when a student leaves my class with the essential skills of communication, team work, critical thinking and problem solving thereby acting differently as a result of the knowledge they have learned.

I take great pride in knowing that the courses I teach truly address the requisite skills required for success in today’s ever changing business world.