Suter (’06) Leverages Coursework into Career

Cory Suter (’06) almost didn’t take MGT 472. He was a senior when the Venture Creation course was re-established under professor Carol Hamilton, and he joined the class on a whim, a week late. This fall, Suter returned to campus to tell the current cohort how this class led to his successful business, BioNeighbors Sustainable Homes, and how students can leverage their class work into a career.

A Winding Path to Success

It wasn’t a straight path, Hamilton emphasized to the juniors and seniors who heard Suter’s speech. “Entrepreneurship isn’t like scheduling your classes for next semester. It isn’t a direct line where you do this, this, and this, and you’ll succeed,” she told them. “It’s often nebulous, and that’s why I love having you hear Cory’s experience.”

Nebulous? Yes, Suter says, but he’s quick to add the word “fun.” His company installs cool roofs and green roofs in Philadelphia, an idea that emerged after a series of dead ends. First, Suter signed on with Teach For America after graduation. When that wasn’t a good fit, he worked in part-time construction and retail management, not sure what he wanted to try next. Then, he realized his home needed a new roof.

Suter had researched the concept of green roofing in MGT 472. It was only a small part of his business plan for BioNeighbors Alternative Fuel Station, but he remembered the dramatic claims of green roof proponents: by applying a special paint or installing a few plants, a building owner could save big on utility costs.

Yet, he couldn’t find anybody in Philadelphia to install one.

Eventually, one small contractor was willing to help Suter experiment on his own roof. He chose a cool roof, which meant painting over black tar with special white paint called elastomeric. The polymer reflects 86 percent of the sun’s heat away from the building, Suter said, which makes it feel noticeably cooler in the house. This experience got Suter thinking about the thousands of Philadelphia row house owners who were running air conditioners endlessly and replacing their black-tarred roofs every few years. Wouldn’t they want to save on utility costs? Triple their roof life? Improve air quality? Be green?

No Money? No Problem.

He didn’t have any investors, but he didn’t need them. “There’s an alternative path,” he told undergraduates. “You don’t have to be wealthy. You can be just out of college and start your business as a ‘capital-lite venture.’ Instead of money, you invest energy and grit.” As for naysayers who warn this type of business takes too long to get going? Suter counters with a list of positives: more time to experiment with your idea, low debt load, and flexibility to make independent decisions.

Thanks to his semester in MGT 472, he already had a trademark on the BioNeighbors name and a logo that a JMU friend had designed. He printed business cards and started talking about his services. Before long, his auto mechanic hired him for two roofs. He networked with sustainable business groups, went to tradeshows, earned a certification, and partnered with a few traditional roofing firms. More jobs came in.

BioNeighbors marketing was still limited to business cards, a website, and networking, but the business was doing well–so well that Suter was able to quit his part-time job as a manager at a thrift store and focus on BioNeighbors full time. To keep costs low, he asked contractors for free crushed brick, hired friends to help with bigger jobs, and trained ex-convicts as part of a city grant program.

Hamilton applauded this creativity. “Notice Cory’s resourcefulness,” she told students. “The way he’s finding labor, working late at night, bartering for materials, this is the kind of ingenuity many business owners must have.”

The Pay-Off

By the fall of 2009, Suter had installed eleven green roofs, 25 cool roof coatings, and was planning to double these numbers by the end of 2010.  “BioNeighbors is now the most prolific residential green roof installer in Philadelphia,”  Suter said , and he’s doing something he truly believes in. “I still care more about the community than about the bottom line. That’s my vision. It inspires me to do the work, and it inspires those who work with me.”

Learn More

• View the PowerPoint slides that accompanied Suter’s speech, including pictures of his work and advice for undergraduates.

• See BioNeighbors in the news from CBS3 Philadephia.

• Visit the BioNeighbors website at http://bioneighbors.com.
  

Maribeth Herod, VP at Freddie Mac, says the competition puts to use skills in team work, creative problem solving, and interpersonal communication. Herod says the JMU CoB has a strong history of developing these skills in students. This year 20 of the Freddie Mac new hires came from JMU.

Fall 2009 Battle of the Builds Competition winners

1st place: Team Bridgeforth Taylor Callsen(CIS) Andrew Kelly (ECON & Finance) Daniel Lacasse (CIS) Zachary Schultz (CIS & Management) Ryan Brady (CIS & Finance)

2nd Place Team: Can’t Break This! Tyler Martin Isha Arura Justin Carter Brandon Bundoc Carrie Mulford Brittany Hafner

View photos of the competition on our CoB FaceBook page.

View all the board of regents members

This prestigious award is sponsored by the State Council for Higher Education in Virginia and recognizes faculty for their superior accomplishments in teaching, research, and public service. The Outstanding Faculty Award is considered one of the highest honors for faculty at Virginia’s public and private colleges and universities.

Flying or teleporting across campus from Wilson Hall to the ISAT building just got a little bit easier. Oh, and possible.

A team of four James Madison University faculty members recently established a presence in “Second Life,” a virtual online world where folks interact with others from around the globe.

The crew digitally reconstructed parts of campus, including two of JMU’s most iconic buildings. They also built a virtual student union, a bookstore, art museum and Stonehenge. (Yes, this version of Harrisonburg’s center is a bit different than reality.)

In Second Life, players use alter egos, or avatars, to navigate cyberspace. The preferred method of travel is flight or teleportation.

“Flying is fun,” said Kate Stevens, a JMU assistant professor of art history, who is one of the four builders.

How It Works

Stevens, Suzie Baker, professor of psychology, Susan Kruck, professor of computer information systems, and Jeremy Hawkins, director of university unions, built the digital campus.

This virtual JMU attracts between 100 and 150 visitors a week who have no affiliation with the university, including several from the international community, Stevens said. The site recently was recognized in an article of Campus Technology magazine.

JMU mostly uses Second Life to create a community for distance-learning students.

“Second Life helps [distance-learning students] get more out of the academic experience and build relationships that they might not have otherwise,” Stevens said. “It’s a different way to get to know each other and it’s fun.” “It just makes sense to have common space,” Hawkins added.

So far, members of the JMU group have held music events, office hours, meetings and lectures.

Stevens says she uses the virtual campus for her museum studies class so she can take her students to exhibits in Europe and Asia without leaving the Harrisonburg. Second Life also gives Stevens a place to “display” artwork from the school’s collection.

JMU is far from alone in their digital creativity. According to Linden Lab, the creator of Second Life, more than 200 universities are using it, including such prestigious institutions as Harvard and Stanford.

Schools like it because instructors can communicate in text or by speaking over a microphone in Second Life while at home or in an office, eliminating the need to travel.

Plus, when students are finished listening to a lecture, they can just teleport home.

Ehsan Ahmed, JMU Economics Department Head, weighs in: “I think there is a pretty good number of professors of economics who want a very limited use of monetary policy and I don’t think that that necessarily has a negative impact on their careers. It’s quite possible that if they have some new ideas, that might be attractive to the Federal Reserve.” More from the Huffington Post >>>

Anne Altman, GM IBM Corp.Global Public Sector

Anne Altman, a member of the CoB Executive Advisory Council, has been named general manager of IBM Corp.’s Global Public Sector, effective August 1.

Altman has been tapped to lead IBM’s global solutions and technology sales for government, education, health care, life sciences and pharmaceutical industries, according to IBM spokeswoman Lia P. Davis.

Altman was managing director of IBM’s System z mainframe group for the past two years, a time of transformation and renewed focus on the importance of IBM’s high-end systems, Davis said. Before that, she was managing director of U.S. Federal at IBM, a position which carried with it responsibility for all aspects of the company’s federal business. Read More from WashingtonTechnology.com

Rachel Bruton, Brandon Sockwell and Meredith Rauh won first place in the Americas region

Three marketing students from James Madison University’s College of Business won first place in the Americas in the 2009 Google Online Marketing Challenge, an international search-engine marketing competition.

Seniors Rachel Bruton, Meredith Rauh and Brandon Sockwell were named winners of the Americas region, which includes North, Central and South America. The team placed second globally, beating some 2,100 teams from 57 countries.

Real Client, Real Money, Real Advertising Campaign
Under the direction of CoB professor Theresa B. Flaherty, Ph.D., the team designed and executed a Google AdWords campaign for the Washington, D.C. business MobileTours.org. With a $200 voucher and a three-week campaign window, the students successfully increased Mobile Tours’ sales by 20 percent.

Meredith, Rachel and Brandon won a trip to the Googleplex and new MacBook Pro laptops.

The students’ strategy included two AdWords campaigns with 15 ad groups. They used other Google marketing and reporting tools- including Google Analytics, Keyword Generator and Dynamic Keyword Insertion, AdWords Editor, geo-targeting, and restricted scheduling of ads-to adjust the campaign each day. The better performing campaign resulted in 37,986 impressions, 306 clicks, an average Click Through Rate of .94 percent, and an average Cost Per Click of 43 cents.

Classroom Theories In Action
All three students volunteered for the competition, receiving no class credit or internship credit. Their motivation was “a competitive edge” in the workforce, according to Burton, the team captain. “You become much more emotionally invested when you work with a real company,” Burton said. “You have the chance to see classroom theories put into action.” The tangible skills are already paying off. Since graduating in May, all three students have earned positions leveraging their online marketing savvy.

Flaherty calls this competition one of the best experiences of her career.”  She congratulated the students for taking on an extra set of responsibilities and demonstrating a true love of learning.

JMU Dominates Competition
In addition to the first place win, two other JMU teams were semi-finalists in the Americas region, ranking in the top 50. In 2008, JMU teams placed in the top 10 percent.