Sales Competition Winners Earn $5,000 in Scholarships and Advance to Nationals

On October 22, 40 students and 37 business professionals returned to campus for the 7th Annual Strategic Sales Competition.

Representatives from Stanley Black and Decker (SBD), Northwestern Mutual, Sherwin Williams, Graybar, Enterprise Holdings, Lower, United Electric Supply, ADP, United Rentals, Pella Mid-Atlantic, Stryker Endoscopy, WMAR – Channel 2, UNUM, Concentra, Triumvirate Environmental, and MemoryBlue served as buyers or judges for the competition.

Among them were several alumni, including Joe Richardson ‘98 (SBD), Grayson Osborn ‘19 (SBD), Chris Wohlfort ‘16 (Lower), Vlad Shevchenko ‘17 (Stryker), Patrick Hoover ‘13 (Pella), Alicia Jones, ‘18 (Gauge Media), Hailey Hardesty ‘19 (Enterprise), and Jenny Fitzsimmons ‘15 (Enterprise).

This unique competition puts theory into practice by simulating a real-life sales scenario whereby students are challenged to sell an actual product to industry professionals who serve as buyers. As platinum partner, Stanley Black and Decker provided the product (DeWalt FlexVolt), for this semester’s competition.

To add authenticity, one-on-one sales pitches take place in real-time and are simultaneously live-streamed to another room where judges evaluate the students’ performance, such as their delivery, tactics, and ability to address the buyers’ concerns.

Five winners were ultimately selected by the judges:

  1. Sydney Greenspan, Business Administration – Marketing
  2. Brian Stanley, Business Administration – International Business
  3. Massimo Artista, Mass Communication – Advertising
  4. Amaya Blanding, Acting
  5. Michael Caulfield, Business Administration – Marketing

The winning students, representing various majors across CBE and TU, received a total of $5,000 in scholarships. First place winner, Sydney Greenspan, will go on to represent TU at the Shore Sales Challenge – a nationwide competition at Salisbury University in March.

Plamen Peev, associate professor of marketing and organizer of the competition extends “Special thanks to Sarah Halvorsen (SBD) for working tirelessly on organizing the Stanley team and training the students on the product. A shout out to all the buyers for the day: Brad Palmatary, Grayson Osborn, Ryan Filyo, Cole Ostendarp, and Jake Jennings (all from SBD).”

New Faculty Spotlight: Joseph Wesolowski

As CBE introduces our new faculty, we would like to place our spotlight on Joseph Wesolowski. Wesolowski is a certified public accountant and earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting from Loyola College, graduating summa cum laude. He holds a Master of Administrative Science from the Johns Hopkins University. Wesolowski currently teaches Principles of Financial Management (FIN331) and Essentials of Financial Management (FIN330).  “I have a lot of real life business experiences that I pass on to the students. This is what they get from me, the way things are done in the ‘real world” he shares. 

Before joining the College of Business and Economics,  Wesolowski most recently served as chief operating officer for Enterprise Community Investment where he directed and oversaw Bellwether Enterprise, Enterprise Mortgage Banking Operations and Enterprise Homes, Inc. Previously, Joe’s area of responsibility included the New Markets Tax Credit program and coordination of field production for all business lines at Enterprise. 

Wesolowski also has over 40 years of experience as a real estate professional. Formerly, he was chief financial officer of USF&G Realty Advisors, Inc. where he oversaw all financial operations. He served as executive vice president for a local real estate developer responsible for development, financing, leasing and management of owned real estate. Wesolowski was also a political appointee to Baltimore City as a real estate officer with responsibility for overseeing city government real estate acquisition, disposition, leasing, analysis and approval of all deal structures. 

Wesolowski shares that “After 42 years in the business world, I decided that teaching could be a great next step for me. I did teach a course at Towson as an adjunct approximately 20 years ago, so it was something that was not totally new to me.” Wesolowski is also using what he is teaching in class to apply to his own financial situation, such as with investing! 

So far in his time with CBE, Wesolowski has really enjoyed interacting with the students. “It has made me feel 40 years younger!” he exclaims. Even though he had to learn the new systems being used in teaching, he shares that it has become better with experience. 

While teaching at Towson, Wesolowski is most looking forward to watching the students progress into successful careers and life. “These are our next leaders,” he explains. 

Wesolowski says that his current goal is “to be the best Educator that I can possibly be!” Outside of teaching,Wesolowski also rides a Harley and loves to explore the outdoors. 

By: Emily Flinchum

Industry Insights: Careers in Financial Planning

What is financial planning? This is exactly the question four industry professionals sought to answer during the Department of Finance’s first in-person Meet and Greet. Held in Stephens Hall on a Friday afternoon in early October, more than 50 students, faculty, and staff gathered to glean advice from local firms including Greenspring Advisors, Financial Consulate, Jacob William Advisory, and Life Science Wealth.

For many, the financial planning profession conjures images of cut-throat, unscrupulous individuals chasing wealth. This reputation is reinforced by shows like Showtime’s Billions or HBO’s Industry. But, as Patrick Collins, CFP®, Graham Ewing, CFP®, and Dan Morrison, CFP® pointed out, this is no longer the case. The industry has changed. Financial planning isn’t just about advising people on investments, nor is it just about finance.

Patrick Collins, CFP®, partner, CEO and co-founder of Greenspring Advisors says, “Managing investments is 20% of the job, soft skills make up the remaining 80%.”

Graham Ewing, CFP®, TU alum and director of financial planning standards at Financial Consulate added, “You need to be able to communicate with clients.”

When discussing skills required to succeed as a financial planner, the professionals agreed, data analysis, communication, and problem-solving are important. Above all, however, is the desire to work with and help people. Chris Sarlo, CFP®, wealth consultant at Life Science Wealth and Graham Ewing, CFP® both noted that relationship management is a massive part of being a financial planner.

Patrick Collins and Dan Morrison, CFP®, founding partner & wealth advisor at Jacob Williams added that the goal of today’s financial planner is to “make people’s lives better.”

If helping people isn’t incentive enough, the CFP Board reports that financial planning offers plenty of job opportunities for tomorrow’s young professionals. In fact, the U.S. Labor Department estimates that jobs in this field will increase at a rate of seven percent through 2028, faster than the average job growth rate.

To learn more about financial planning and whether or not it’s the right career path for you, reach out to senior lecturer Chinedum Nwadiora or visit their web page. The opportunities are endless!

Welcome Back Tigers!

After almost a year and a half online, the College of Business and Economics welcomed back our students, faculty, and staff for in-person classes in Stephens Hall on August 30. CBE is honored to host more than 3,000 undergraduate and 93 graduate students this Fall 2021 semester. We have been welcoming students both new and old back this week as we all become reacquainted with Stephens Hall and each other. It’s also been a great opportunity to grab some snacks and college swag! CBE is excited to see everyone again and hopes this semester will be successful and safe for all students.

The College’s main priority remains the well-being and success of our students, faculty, and staff. As we navigate this new semester, we ask that everyone please be mindful of TU’s health and safety measures. This includes the use of face masks within Stephens Hall for all students, faculty, and staff regardless of vaccination status. Please refer to the University’s updates if any changes are to occur.

We look forward to an engaging and healthy semester back on campus with everyone.

 

Written by: Emily Flinchum

Should Vaccinated People Continue Wearing Masks? An Economist’s Take

Article written by: Dr. Shantanu Bagchi*

The recent update to the Centers For Disease Control’s (CDC) mask guidance has ignited a vigorous debate on whether or not vaccinated people should continue to wear masks in public settings. Conservatives have been quick to label this mask-wearing as “liberal elitism” and accused people of “not following the science”. On the other hand, liberals have labeled this criticism as “selfish individualism” that has no regard for “the greater good”. As it turns out, we can use a set of ideas from Economics to better understand why vaccinated people continuing to wear masks is a natural consequence of a phenomenon called information asymmetry.

Strictly defined, information asymmetry is a situation where the “buyer” and the “seller” of a commodity have different information about the commodity. In a classic study on this topic, George Akerlof (1970) showed that this type of asymmetric information could explain why “lemons”, or defective cars, were flooding the used car markets in the 1960-70s. Basically, in the absence of a vehicle history search service, such as Carfax or Autocheck, the average used car buyer does not know if a particular used car is a “lemon” or a “peach”. The used car seller, on the other hand, fully knows if a used car is a lemon or a peach, but also knows that the buyer is uncertain about this. Given this uncertainty, the buyer would be very unlikely to pay a good price for a used car, and knowing this, the seller would not find it profitable to have good used cars on the lot. As a result, the only used cars on the lot would be “lemons”: the information asymmetry would drive good cars off the used car market. This observation that information asymmetry causes market failures was so novel, it eventually led to Akerlof receiving the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2001.

Similar information asymmetry problems plague a lot of other markets today. Take, for example, the market for individual health insurance. Most Americans are on employer-provided “group” health insurance plans. Group health insurance is considerably cheaper than individual health insurance plans; individual insurance plans are notoriously expensive because insurance companies are uncertain whether an individual enrollee is “high risk” or “low risk”. Because of this uncertainty, they must charge a high price so that they can remain profitable if it turns out that the enrollee is “high risk”. The enrollee, on the other hand, knows their own type: their lifestyle, diet, healthcare practices, and therefore, whether they are low or high risk. A “low risk” person, consequently, may not find it worthwhile purchasing such high-priced insurance. As a result, the only people left to purchase individual health insurance are overwhelmingly “high risk” individuals. Just like the market for “lemons”, information asymmetry drives “low risk” people off the individual health insurance market.

How can we use this framework to better understand why it is reasonable for fully vaccinated individuals to continue wearing a mask in public settings? Consider this: individual vaccination status is private information, so when one encounters a non-mask-wearing person, there is considerable uncertainty as to whether that person is vaccinated or not. Based on the latest CDC guidelines, going mask-free is recommended only around other vaccinated people, but there is no way to know if a stranger is vaccinated or not. Because of this information asymmetry, it is just not worthwhile for many fully vaccinated people, particularly those with underlying health conditions and those who are immunosuppressed, to stop wearing a mask in public. Just like the market for “lemons” and individual health insurance, information asymmetry will produce a less-than-ideal situation here as well: many fully vaccinated Americans will justifiably continue wearing masks in public settings, even though all of us would like to return to a mask-free pre-pandemic normal.

Reference: Akerlof, G. A., 1970. The Market for ‘Lemons’: Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 84(3), p. 488–500.

*This article represents the research and perspective of Associate Professor Shantanu Bagchi of the Department of Economics.