Is This Really a Thing?

Are the Excel Championships just another bit of content for ESPN? Could it keep the Pac 12 alive? More importantly, is it an eSport and can we gamble on it? Listen in!   Featured Guests Andrew Grigolyunovich - Founder and CEO of the Financial Modeling World Cup David Clayton Brown, Ph.D. - Associate Professor of Finance at the Eller College of Business at the University of Arizona "Mr. Excel" Bill Jelen - Excel Expert, Consultant, Author & Play-by-Play Announcer Adrien Bouchet, Ph.D. - Richard & Helen DeVos Foundation Endowed Chair; Eminent Scholar of the DeVos Sport Business Management Program at UCF Sean Dennis, Ph.D. - Assistant Professor, Kenneth G. Dixon School of Accounting at UCF   Episode Transcription Announcer from the movie "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story": Live from Las Vegas, It's the Las Vegas International Dodge Ball Open here on ESPN 8: The Ocho, bringing you the finest in seldom scene sports from around the globe since 1999. If it's almost a sport, we've got it here. Paul Jarley: But I have to admit I did not see this coming. This show is all about separating hype from fundamental change. I'm Paul Jarley, Dean of the College of Business here at UCF. I've got lots of questions. To get answers, I'm talking to people with interesting insights into the future of business. Have you ever wondered, is this really a thing? Onto our show. Paul Jarley: While, it most certainly isn't "Dodgeball," and we aren't breaking down Average Joe's, we are talking about the Excel Championships that just aired on ESPN, and will be heading to Las Vegas in December. Are the Excel Championships even close to an eSport? I really need help understanding why Excel is on ESPN. To form an opinion on this, I've assembled the following panel of experts. Andrew Grigolyunovich is the Founder and CEO of the Financial Modeling World Cup and joins us all the way from Latvia. David Clayton Brown is an Associate Professor of Finance at the Eller College of Business at the University of Arizona. Bill Jelen goes by the moniker Mr. Excel. He has authored several books on Excel and is the competition's play-by-play guy. Adrian Bouchet is the DeVos Endowed Chair of Sports Management and Chair of the Sports Business Management Program here in the College of Business. Finally, Sean Dennis is an Associate Professor in our Dixon School of Accounting. Listen in. Paul Jarley: So one of the very first podcasts I did was on eSports and the premise of it was whether eSports was going to be a thing or not. I came down on the side that I thought it was going to be a big thing that I thought it wouldn't just be a big thing in the professional ranks, that it would be a big thing in the college ranks as well. And one of the reasons I thought that that would be true is it would be a way for universities to promote a group of geeky students with a unique offering, but I have to admit, I did not see this coming. When I saw the ESPN promotion on The Ocho for this event, I thought, wow, this is one I just wouldn't have imagined. I'm going to start with David and Andrew here. Where did the idea for these kinds of competitions come from? Andrew? Andrew Grigolyunovich: It all started, I think that was back in 2012, the first competition of a similar kind that was called ModelOff that was created by two guys in Australia and they were doing that on an annual basis and that was devoted to financial modeling. That was called the Financial Modeling World Championship. They had a name brand named ModelOff. I was one of the players, David was one of the players there. We were good players, we made it to the finals a couple of times and in 2016 we were among the top 16 players in London. So the difference between what you saw on ESPN, first of all, that was annual, not regular. Second, it was more player oriented, less show oriented. That was basically targeting finance professionals, giving them very interesting cases to solve,

Could Artificial Intelligence make Hollywood a ghost town? Reality TV, strikes and cyborgs, OH MY! Hollywood may be heading toward AI-generated content, and we all may already be living in a cyborg state … so was this episode AI-generated? This is part two of a two-part episode. Be sure to go back and listen to Part 1: Will the Hollywood Strike be an Extended Thing?   Featured Guests David Luna, Ph.D. - UCF College of Business Robin Cowie - Phygital Experience Creator & Feature Filmmaker Cassandra "Cassi" Willard, J.D. - Instructor, Department of Management, UCF College of Business & Program Director, Blackstone LaunchPad at UCF Ray Eddy, Ph.D - Lecturer, Integrated Business, UCF College of Business   Episode Transcription Actor Bryan Cranston speaking at a SAG-AFTRA strike rally in Times Square in New York City on July 25, 2023: Uh, we've got a message for Mr. Iger. I know, sir, that you look through things through a different lens. We don't expect you to understand who we are, but we ask you to hear us, and beyond that, to listen to us when we tell you we will not be having our jobs taken away and given to robots. Paul Jarley: The real issue, Bryan, is whether the AI listens and understands us. This show is all about separating hype from fundamental change. I'm Paul Jarley, Dean of the College of Business here at UCF. I've got lots of questions. To get answers, I'm talking to people with interesting insights into the future of business. Have you ever wondered, is this really a thing? Onto our show. In our last episode, we explored the current writers and actor's strikes and how the parties might come to some agreement to get everyone back to work and spare us a lot of new reality TV. A key part of that analysis involved the limitations of AI today. It can't produce a final product without humans. That, of course, is today. AI technology is changing rapidly and its impact on the industry is likely to grow over time. In today's episode, we look at the long-term implications of AI in Hollywood and ask, could AI depopulate the industry in 10 years? In other words, could it eliminate or substantially reduce the number of people working in Hollywood, especially the writers and actors. To shed light on these topics, I returned to the discussion I had with my group of UCF experts. To just remind everyone, Cassandra Willard is an instructor and program director in our Center for Entrepreneurship and a practicing attorney with extensive experience in entertainment law. Ray Eddy is a lecturer in our Integrated Business department with an interest in understanding the customer experience. Ray is not just an academic, he has worked as a stunt man, started his own production company and written, directed and starred in several performances. David Luna is a professor in our Marketing department. He is currently working on several projects, studying human machine interactions in the context of chatbots, intelligent assistance, and AI. And last but not least is Robin Cowie. Rob is a graduate of our Motion Picture Technology program at UCF. He's a little hard to summarize, having worked in a variety of positions in the industry from EA Sports, to Nickelodeon, to the Golf Channel, and the Dr. Phillips Center for Performing Arts. Today, he is the President and CTO at Promising People, a company that produces training and placement services for people who have been incarcerated. But, you probably know Rob best from his work as co-producer on "The Blair Witch Project." Listen in. David, if AI is going to depopulate Hollywood, it's going to have to produce movies that are more profitable than the ones being created today. What do you see as the main issues here? David Luna: There are different kinds of costs involved in making a movie, right? One of them would be the creative part, and from what has transpired from the conversations with the writer's union,

More reality TV? AI-generated “South Park” episodes? Is this where Hollywood is heading thanks to the latest writer and actor strike? We find out from UCF experts how, and why, the strike will be resolved and how AI will play into plans moving forward. This is part one of a two-part episode.   On July 14, 2023, members of the Hollywood actors' union, SAG-AFTRA, stood with screenwriters, forming a picket line outside Amazon Studios in Los Angeles, California. This marked the commencement of an actors' strike. SAG-AFTRA joined forces with the Writers Guild of America workers, who had been engaged in a determined strike against the Hollywood studios for three months. This joint walkout, a rare occurrence not witnessed since 1960, underscores the magnitude of the situation. The collaboration between SAG-AFTRA and WGA intensifies the impact of the strike, with the potential to bring Hollywood productions to a complete standstill.   Featured Guests David Luna, Ph.D. - UCF College of Business Robin Cowie - Phygital Experience Creator & Feature Filmmaker Cassandra "Cassi" Willard, J.D. - Instructor, Department of Management, UCF College of Business & Program Director, Blackstone LaunchPad at UCF Ray Eddy, Ph.D - Lecturer, Integrated Business, UCF College of Business   Episode Transcription SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher in a press conference July 13, 2023: The entire business model has been changed by streaming, digital, AI. This is a moment of history that is a moment of truth. If we don't stand tall right now, we are all going to be in trouble. We are all going to be in jeopardy of being replaced by machines. You cannot change the business model as much as it has changed and not expect the contract to change too. We are labor and we stand tall and we demand respect. Paul Jarley: Oh my, this is going to get really complicated. In the meantime, prepare for a new round of reality TV. This show is all about separating hype from fundamental change. I'm Paul Jarley, Dean of the College of Business here at UCF. I've got lots of questions, to get answers, I'm talking to people with interesting insights into the future of business. Have you ever wondered, is this really a thing? On to our show. The writers and actors haven't been out on strike together since 1960. Then, it was partly about how television was impacting the film industry and getting residual income for writers and actors from movies that were then being shown on TV. The business model was changing and labor wanted its share. Screen Actors Guild President Fran Drescher's comments at the start of this podcast note that technology is changing the business model again with streaming services, digital media and AI among the main drivers. This is a very complicated situation, so complicated, that we couldn't fit it into our usual 25-to-30 minute podcast. So we decided to split it into two parts. Today we will tackle the basics of the strike and how and when we see it being resolved. The second part, we'll do a much deeper dive into AI and Hollywood and how that is likely to change the industry going forward, especially for writers and actors. Essentially, we want to answer the question, will anybody be left in Hollywood in 10 years?   As always, to shed light on these topics, I've assembled a group of UCF experts. Cassandra Willard is an instructor and Program Director at our Blackstone Launchpad and a practicing attorney with extensive experience in entertainment law. Ray Eddy is a lecturer in our Integrated Business program with an interest in understanding consumer experiences. Ray is not just an academic, he has worked as a stuntman, started his own production company and written, directed and starred in several performances. If you've been to Walt Disney World in the last several years, you may have seen Ray playing Indiana Jones, in Indiana Jones: Epic Stunt Spectacular. David Luna is a professor in our Marketing department.

Did the pandemic spark a flurry of innovation or was everyone too busy bingeing Tiger King and Outerbanks and Zooming to endless happy hours to launch new businesses and products? Dean Paul Jarley turns to UCF's entrepreneurial in-house experts along with an alum whose company helps startups grow and scale to find out the answer.  

Inflation hasn't been much of an issue since Jimmy Carter was in office. But—like Mom Jeans and mullets—it's totally back. This time, though, it feels different. We're paying more than ever at the pump and in the grocery stores, so what's to blame? Is it government spending? Supply chain shortages? The war in Ukraine? We've got questions, so we turned to UCF economist Sean Snaith for answers. Additional Resources Want to learn more? Check out Snaith's latest U.S. Economic Report from UCF's Institute for Economic Forecasting. Featured Guests Sean Snaith, Ph.D. - Director, Institute for Economic Forecasting   Episode Transcription Paul Jarley: Inflation hasn't really been an issue since the Carter years. That Saturday Night Live skit was Dan Aykroyd impersonating Jimmy Carter. Inflation is definitely not the friend of people who are on fixed incomes. Today's inflation, though, feels a little different. Some people think it's not a surprise. We printed a bunch of money during the pandemic, and we're suffering the consequences to that. Spending was high, particularly government spending. Some people blame it on supply chain shortages. Some people blame it on the war in Ukraine. Some people believe it's a government conspiracy. To sort through all of those things, when Sean gets here, we will have a conversation with him that will help us shed some light on where inflation really is today and where we think it's going in the future. Well, here he is. I'm assuming you're in big demand these days. Sean Snaith: Yeah. I've spoken on at least two occasions about inflation over the past year and a half. Paul Jarley: So you raising your prices, given all this demand? Sean Snaith: No, competition's too fierce. Paul Jarley: Really? Yeah. Sean Snaith: Yeah. Economists are a dime a dozen. Paul Jarley: Well, that's probably true, but you're the prettiest one I have, buddy. Sean Snaith: Aw. You're like my magic mirror. What fairy tale was that? Who's the fairest economist in the land? Paul Jarley: Oh, that's not even close. I mean, it's a low bar if you've met most economists, right? Sean Snaith: I build a career on low expectations. Paul Jarley: There's no GQ for economics. I've never seen it. Sean Snaith: No. We did do a GDP GQ... Paul Jarley: There you go. Very nice. Sean Snaith: But yeah, the model was not an attractive man. Paul Jarley: I would imagine not. So how unattractive is it right now? Sean Snaith: Well, we're making the call when our release goes out that we are in or very close to a recession right now. And speaking to different groups and to the media over the past year, all of this can be traced back to the policy response to COVID-19 in 2020. Paul Jarley: We'll come to that in a couple minutes. A few weeks ago I was driving home and when I drive home from the gym, I tend to put on sports talk radio. It's my time to kind of catch up with. And the guy was railing against the inflation number in the sense that he didn't believe it, that he thought the reported one was too low. And he was quoting the doubling in gas prices over a period. And yeah. So talk a little bit about how that inflation number is actually put together and what it really means. Sean Snaith: Many of the variables in macroeconomics have measurement issues. Financial markets, interest rates... Paul Jarley: Pretty simple stuff right? Sean Snaith: To the second on the spot. When you start talking about GDP, employment, unemployment inflation, now you're dealing with something that's not as directly observable. And especially for something like the price level, we know what the price of individual commodities are. We know much wheat and soybean costs. We know much corn costs, how much a gallon of gas or gallon of milk costs, but the price level's not observable. So we, the economics profession, the government, comes up with proxies to try to gauge that.

This past summer marked a significant change for college athletes as the NCAA voted to allow them the opportunity to benefit from their name, image and likeness. While it's certainly a significant change in the NCAA's approach and rulemaking, what will it mean for most student athletes, especially those outside the big conferences and revenue-generating sports like football and basketball?   Featured Guests Terry Mohajir - Vice President & Director of Athletics at UCF Brittney Anderson-Duzan - Associate AD for Compliance at UCF Scott Bukstein - Undergraduate Program Director & Associate Instructor of Sport Business Management at UCF   Episode Highlights 01:08 - What is NIL? 04:27 - What's going on nationally? 06:26 - What's the total value of the market? 09:08 - Is it going to impact recruiting? 14:54 - Are there guidelines for sports agents? 18:52 - Is NIL the endgame or are more changes coming? 27:05 - Dean Jarley's final thoughts   Episode Transcription Paul Jarley: This would not have happened a year ago. Valerie Moses with Addition Financial (00:02): Good morning. It is so great to see you all here today. We are so proud of our partnership with Dillon Gabriel and with UCF Athletics and with the College of Business, we're a proud partner. You can see us at the student gate at any football game, so please come visit us. We are incredibly honored to sponsor this morning's event and to get to hear from Dillon and from [Steven 00:00:24] as well, all about the NIL partnerships. This is such a huge brand new front here, I would say, in the world of sports business and something that we all really need to be paying attention to. So it is very exciting to see these partnerships really come alive, and we are so grateful for our partnerships here today. Paul Jarley (00:44): Will this newfound right to publicity change college athletics forever? Paul Jarley (00:48): This year was all about separating hype from fundamental change. I'm Paul Jarley, Dean of the College of Business here at UCF. I've got lots of questions. To get answers, I'm talking to people with interesting insights into the future of business. Have you ever wondered, is this really a thing? On to our show. Paul Jarley (01:08): Name, image and likeness is a legal concept that allows any person, including student athletes, the right to publicity, the ability to capitalize on anything that identifies them, including the ability to engage in third-party sponsorships and endorsements. Some people think this will change college athletics as we know it, others aren't so sure. They think the marketplace will adjust, and that the benefits will accrue to a very few. To help sort through this, I've assembled three guests. Terry Mohajir is UCF's athletic director, Brittney Duzan is the associate AD for compliance, and Scott Bukstein is an associate instructor in our DeVos Sports Business Management Program. Listen in. Paul Jarley (01:51): As I understand NIL, this is being dealt with on a state-by-state basis. So what does Florida allow student athletes to do now that they couldn't do before? Brittney, I'm going to throw that to you. Brittney Anderson-Duzan (02:06): Sure. So, like most states, the state of Florida is one of the few that actually has a legislated piece for name, image and likeness. So essentially what they now have is the right to utilize their name, image and likeness for commercial purposes, so whether that be for money or not for money, that they weren't allowed to do previously by NDA legislation. So basically, they have the right to publicity now. Paul Jarley (02:32): They can print their faces on t-shirts. Can they get appearance fees? I'm trying to understand exactly what we're- Brittney Anderson-Duzan (02:39): Yeah. They can get appearance fees. It [inaudible 00:02:43] us now with what students on campus can do. So think outside of just those big endorsement deals,

Find yourself asking "Where's the beef?" when you order a burger these days? You could be a victim of "Shrinkflation." Rising demand post-pandemic and disrupted supply chains are impacting many of the goods and foods we consume. Will we be getting less of a product for the same price as companies try to protect their bottom lines? Hear what a UCF economist and Marketing professors have to say about what to expect and whether you need to watch out for Shrinkflators around every corner.   Featured Guests Uluc Ayson, Ph.D. - Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at UCF Anand Krishnamoorthy, Ph.D. - Associate Professor of Marketing Muge Yayla Kullu, Ph.D. - Associate Professor of Marketing at UCF Axel Stock, Ph.D. - Associate Professor of Marketing Yael Zemack-Rugar, Ph.D. - Associate Professor of Marketing at UCF Episode Highlights 00:14 - Introduction 01:26 - Are we experiencing inflation? 03:40 - What prompts companies to become shrinkflators? 05:30 - What are some examples of shrinkflation? 08:40 - Are we more sensitive to price than changes in service or packaging? 13:00 - Are there any consumer benefits to shrinkage? 28:00 - Will shrinkflation be here in a year? 32:04 - Dean Jarley's final thoughts   Episode Transcription Assorted Speakers:“Where's the beef?” “Why is my six-count nugget now a five count nugget? Where's my other nugget?” “You mean shrinkage?” “Significant shrinkage.” “So you feel you were short changed?” “Yes.” Zemack-Rugar: So apparently if you reduced one dimension, but you make it longer, then people perceive the same size because we can't assess volume. Jarley (Host): : As Erin Turner would say, this is how they get ya. Jarley: : This show is all about separating hype from fundamental change. I'm Paul Jarley, Dean of the College of Business here at UCF. I've got lots of questions. To get answers, I'm talking to people with interesting insights into the future of business. Have you ever wondered, is this really a thing? Onto our show… Jarley: A couple of weeks ago, I read an article claiming that for a variety of reasons, some companies were cutting back on the size of their offerings rather than increasing their price. I was intrigued. So I sent an email out to the faculty and within an hour, I had 10 people who had volunteered to become part of a podcast on this subject. It made me think that shrinkflation was at the very least, well, an academic thing. Conflicting schedules reduced the size of our panel from 10 to five, but I have one economist and four associate professors of marketing with me today to talk about what's going on. Muge Kullu, Yael Zemack-Rugar, Axel Stock and Anand Krishnamoorthy all hail from our Marketing Department. Listen in. Before we get to shrinkflation, Uluc, are we experiencing inflation right now? Ayson: Yes, we are. So if you look at TPI inflation, it's called headline inflation. It has increased in the past three months. We went from below 2 percent to 2.6, 4.1. Now it's just four points, 4.6. And then now it's just at 4.9, uh, which is considered high based on the past three decades. And it's high compared to the Fed implicit inflation target as well, which is 2 percent. So it is increasing. Jarley: It's a really odd situation here. We've had an economy that's been largely shut down for a year. That's coming back. Give me some sense of how much of this is sort of a supply chain issue and how much of it is due to other factors. Kullu: Companies had trouble from the supply end, also from the demand end, you know, like people just ran to the store and cleaned off the shelves for toilet paper. So like demand went crazy and suppliers shut down first; China shut down. So, and that was a wave of shutdowns in different parts of the world in different parts. At times through the year and then logistics shut down, now there was a lot of trouble passing through...

If you're wondering what an NFT, aka Non-Fungible Token, is, well, you're not alone. CryptoPunks and CyberCats are selling for six and seven figures and even Christie's is getting in on the digital art action. So we've got questions...what are these digital items, why are people investing a fortune in them (and should you?), and what does that mean for the financial sector and the art world?   Featured Guests Buvaneshwaran "Eshwar" Venugopal, Ph.D. - Assistant Professor of Finance at UCF Carla Poindexter, M.F.A. - UCF Professor of Art Lory Kehoe - Director, Digital Assets & Blockchain, BNY Mellon Episode Highlights 0:26 - Introduction 2:04 - What the heck is an NFT? 04:01 - What do I actually own? 05:58 - What's actually in the blockchain? 11:33 - Why did the bank become interested in an NFT? 15:10 - When the world gets back to normal, will this all go away? 21:40 - What keeps you up the most at night about NFTs? 24:45 - 10 years from now are NFTs going to be around and what are they mainly going to be used for? 28:15 - Dean Jarley's final thoughts   Episode Transcription Paul Jarley: Eshwar, I'm going to start with you. What the heck is an NFT? Eshwar Venugopal: I think the world is trying to figure it out. Paul Jarley: This here was all about separating hype from fundamental change. I'm Paul Jarley, dean of the college of business here at UCF. I've got lots of questions. To get answers, I'm talking to people with interesting insights into the future of business. Have you ever wondered, is this really a thing? Onto our show. (singing). On March 11th, CryptoPunk 3,100, a piece of digital art, sold for $7.6 million with an NFT. That broke the record set the day before by CryptoPunk 7804, which had sold for $7.5 million. Then on March 21st, Beeple's the First 5,000 days sold for $69.3 million. Needless to say, people took notice. I took notice. Well, honestly, Josh told me to take notice. I was hesitant. This all seemed pretty esoteric. Techno geeks with stupid money doing techno geeky things, I thought.But then Forbes did an article. I noticed Christie's auction house was involved. And so I started to send some emails and make some phone calls. My resident blockchain guy had an interest in this. The dean of arts and humanities, Jeff Moore, put me in contact with an artist interested in NFTs. The kicker was Jeff Stokes. Jeff is a member of my dean's advisory board, with BNY Mellon, who put me in contact with their digital asset guy. If Alexander Hamilton's bank was interested in NFTs, I figured I should be too. So to shed some light on this new phenomenon, we have with us today, Eshwar Venugopal, who is an assistant professor here in the finance department at UCF, Carla Poindexter, who is the professor of art at UCF, and Lory Kehoe, who is the director of digital assets and blockchain at BYN Mellon. Listen in. Paul Jarley: Eshwar, I'm going to start with you. What the heck is an NFT? Eshwar Venugopal: An NFT is basically a certificate of ownership of a digital group. Basically giving artists an ability to offer limited additions of their artwork. I'm going to use artists as an example over here, since we have Carla over here. But I have a problem with that, but I'll come to it later on. But the idea is that you have a certificate of ownership and it is a limited edition product and it is more of a digital collection rather than a physical good. That's how it has been envisioned. But things have been changing rapidly. These days, if you take some of the latest NFTs that are being minted, there is a physical aspect of it. One guy actually sold his house on NFT. So, things are a little bit blurry now, but if you take a look at it from a property perspective, it is just an ownership as a consumption good. That's it. Paul Jarley: Yeah. Let me be old school for a minute so I can understand this a little better. I can purchase an original Monet.

GameStop and AMC made national headlines for unexpected reasons as retail investors from social media website Reddit began feverishly scooping up shares in each company. While the resulting drama caused wild swings in stock prices and scrutiny against some online trading platforms, the long term impacts remain to be seen. Did "Redditors" usher in a new era of retail stock trading? Or are these so-called meme stocks just another example of financial history repeating itself?   Featured Guests Garrett Cummings - President, UCF Young Investors Club Josh Miranda - Communications & Marketing Coordinator, UCF College of Business Kevin Mullally, Ph.D. - Assistant Professor of Finance, UCF College of Business Episode Highlights 1:04 - Introduction 2:48 - Why would anyone invest in GameStop? 7:22 - What led to the media spotlight on $GME? 12:37 - Who is the group driving the run on GameStop stock? 14:27 - Is this a legitimate area of finance research? 16:37 - Historical similarities 20:12 - How is this run on $GME going to end? 22:08 - What's the future for meme stocks as a whole? 28:27 - Will this still be a story a year from now? 31:33 - Dean Jarley's final thoughts   Episode Transcription Paul Jarley:                         Remember the E-Trade Baby? E-Trade Baby:                    A lot of people are like, "Isn't it difficult to invest in the markets?" And I'm like, "Not if you're using E-trade. Making a big investment is as easy as a single click." Boom. I just bought some stocks. Paul Jarley:                         I think he was the first meme investor. He didn't last long. E-Trade Baby:                    Wait, why is this line going down? Oh God, it just dropped 400 points. This is not happening. Dear Lord, I made a horrible, horrible mistake. **** Paul Jarley:                         Or maybe he just moved onto the social media site, Reddit [crosstalk 00:00:31] and lost hundreds of thousands of dollars trading stock in GameStop. Turns out he's just one of many. E-Trade Baby:                    Take it back. Sell, sell, sell, sell, sell. Too late. It's all gone. Paul Jarley:                         This show is all about separating hype from fundamental change. I'm Paul Jarley, Dean of the College of Business here at UCF. I've got lots of questions. To get answers, I'm talking to people with interesting insights into the future of business. Have you ever wondered, "Is this really a thing?" Onto our show. Paul Jarley:                         So GameStop has obviously been in the news a lot over the last week, and to help me understand what's going on here, I've convened a panel of experts. Kevin Mullally is an assistant professor in our finance department. Garrett Cummings is the president of our student investment club and a finance major. And I pulled in our own Josh Miranda, who knows a little bit about viral marketing and maybe viral finance to have a conversation about GameStop and its short-term and long-term implications. But I want to start out with a story. When I first came to UCF, one of the first groups I met with were some executives at EA sports. Paul Jarley:                         And they said to me, "We know right now we're a company that puts the $60 box in a GameStop for people to purchase, but we know that's about to go away. We know that a few years from now, we will have developed into something like iTunes, where people electronically download whatever the game is into their console. And we think after that, we will become a company that offers various components of games that people can download and create their own game. And we want to understand that consumer more and what aspects of the games they like and dislike, so that we can meet that market demand when it comes." Now, I raise that story because that was 10 years ago, and EA sports knew GameStop was dead then. So when I first heard the stories about GameStop,

After one of the deepest recessions in history, the U.S. economy still has roughly 10 million fewer jobs than before the COVID-19 pandemic began. While some say the economy is improving faster than expected and has seen significant growth in recent months, it could be some time before the U.S. returns to pre-pandemic highs. What will drive the economy back into recovery? And can it happen before 2022? Sean Snaith, Director of UCF's Institute for Economic Forecasting, explains his timeline and predictions for complete economic recovery.   Featured Guests Sean Snaith - Director, UCF Institute for Economic Forecasting Episode Highlights 0:45 - Sean Snaith introduction 1:31 - Just how bad did it get in 2020? 4:54 - How Sean Snaith describes the economy today 7:01 - The U.S. government's response 9:46 - Will new stimulus packages be effective? 11:41 - How did Florida fare compared to the U.S. economy? 16:06 - The future of the U.S. and Florida economies 18:18 - Economic recommendations for the Biden Administration 22:48 - New taxes? 25:21 - Are the "Roaring '20s" going to be a thing? 26:54 - Paul Jarley's final thoughts   Episode Transcription Paul Jarley:                         So between now and election, what do you think, the economy going to have a recession? Yes? No? Why? Glenn Hubbard:               On balance, I don't think we're at the cusp of a recession. John Solow:                       I absolutely agree with Glenn's take on what things are doing now. Paul Jarley:                         No, I think the short answer is no, there's not going to be a recession before the 2020 election or in 2020 at all, I think. Sami Alpanda:                   I agree with almost everything that has been said so far. Paul Jarley:                         Turns out they were all wrong. This year was all about separating hype from fundamental change. I'm Paul Jarley, Dean of the College of Business here at UCF. I've got lots of questions. To get answers, I'm talking to people with interesting insights into the future of business. Have you ever wondered, is this really a thing? Onto our show. Paul Jarley:                         2020 threw everyone a curve ball. That recession, well, it turned out to be a thing. Is 2021 the return of prosperity? Will the economy go on a run like it did in the 1920s? I sat down with our resident expert, Dr. Sean Snaith, he's the director of our Institute for Economic Forecasting. Listen in. Well, thanks for joining me today, Sean. Sean Snaith:                       Pleasure. Paul Jarley:                         We've got a lot to cover. I'm going to ask you to be the ghost of economy past, present, and future, if you don't mind. And let's start out with the past. Back in 2019, I hosted a panel of people, including Glenn Hubbard at that time and asked them whether a recession in 2020 was possible and all of them to a person and you as well said, no chance, right? Paul Jarley:                         The economy was really humming. When I asked them what they were concerned about, frankly, they had trouble coming up with anything and then March of 2020 happened. So how bad did it get in 2020? Sean Snaith:                       Well, at least I'm in good company in being wrong, I suppose. And I don't know if I'm the ghost or I'm haunted by my past forecast, but I don't think, two things, that I don't think anyone saw coming. One is a pandemic, global pandemic out of China. That's one thing. This is ... Paul Jarley:                         That's the exogenous shock. Sean Snaith:                       That's the exogenous part. And so this stuff happens. Now, could that in and of itself have triggered a recession? Maybe. Paul Jarley:                         Maybe. Sean Snaith:                       Maybe. But it was the endogenous part or the policy response to it that really put us into the historic downturn.

It's hard to imagine a virtual Tupperware party. Sales presentations are trickier with the move to increased online communication. Gone (for now) are the days of making small talk with prospective clients in the hallway and capturing their undivided attention face-to-face. Now that life has gone virtual, is it really possible for sales professionals to channel their charisma and build rapport through video calls? Do customers respond the same way to virtual selling tactics? Or should salespeople be expecting lower commissions until they can meet in person?   Featured Guests Kathleen Lima - Sales Manager, Gartner Keith Lubner - Chief Business Strategist, Sales Gravy Episode Highlights 1:47 - What is virtual selling and how does it work? 6:35 - B2B vs. B2C - Who virtual selling is really for 12:34 - The biggest barriers to overcome 16:50 - Is virtual selling just a "young people's" game? 23:09 - What students can learn from virtual selling 26:16 - Final thoughts from Keith and Kathleen 28:12 - Paul Jarley's final thoughts   Episode Transcription Paul Jarley:                         Remember the door-to-door Salesman? Salesman:                           Good morning, madam. Homeowner:                     Good morning. I'm afraid I don't want them. Salesman:                           You've been selected for a special introductory offer, madam. Announcer:                        Using one of the many tricks to interest you, he'll keep talking, exaggerating. Paul Jarley:                         My sense is he got largely replaced by the robocall. Robo Caller:                       Hi, I'm calling from vehicle servicing to reach out regarding the factory warranty on your vehicle. Our records indicate it's past the coverage expiration [crosstalk 00:00:24] the vehicle you want to sell is actually still eligible for a warranty. Paul Jarley:                         But if there isn't enough to be annoyed about in 2020, now we have this. Zoom Caller:                      Can anyone hear me? Zoom Caller:                      We can hear you. Zoom Caller:                      Hello. Zoom Caller:                      Yeah. We can hear you. We can all hear you. Zoom Caller:                      I'm sorry. Just before we begin, can I just go to the bathroom quickly? Zoom Caller:                      I'm just going to go ahead. Paul Jarley:                         Does anybody really need Zoom call salespeople? Really? Paul Jarley:                         This show is all about separating hype from fundamental change. I'm Paul Jarley, Dean of the College of Business here at UCF. I've got lots of questions. To get answers, I'm talking to people with interesting insights into the future of business. Have you ever wondered, is this really a thing? Onto our show. Paul Jarley:                         Necessity really is the mother of invention. Case in point, how do you sell people stuff if lockdown orders and social distancing norms mean you can't meet with potential customers in person? Answer? Virtual selling. Google it and you'll see how many YouTube videos you can find featuring people who are now positioning themselves as virtual selling experts. YouTube is the happy home of many a modern-day snake oil salesman. So I wanted to talk to a few sales experts and get their take on virtual selling and whether I need to incorporate this into the business school curriculum. Listen in. Paul Jarley:                         So what the heck is virtual selling and how does it differ from other forms of selling? Kathleen Lima:                  Virtual selling in general is a way to communicate using digital platforms and technology in order to still be able to do business. Paul Jarley:                         Kathleen Lima is a sales manager at Gartner, and more importantly, a graduate of our professional selling program.

As employees continue to work from home, leases are running out and corporate office space is in jeopardy. Managers around the world have to decide if it's more efficient to keep their offices open, downsize, or go entirely remote. Seven months into this pandemic, the question remains... is working from home really going to stick? How is the commercial real estate industry handling the move to remote work spaces? Can professionals truly replicate the "sense of space" that comes with collaborating in person... from home? And five years from now, what will the typical workday look like?   Featured Guests Steve Garrity - Vice President, Highwoods Properties Nick Poole - Managing Director, JLL Yvonne Baker - Regional Managing Partner, Franklin Street Bill Moss - Director, Dr. P. Phillips Institute for Research and Education in Real Estate at UCF Episode Highlights 2:34 - The state of commercial real estate pre-COVID 4:25 - The rise of the open offices 9:19 - How the pandemic is changing office space 12:07 - The importance of "a sense of space" in collaborative work 13:44 - How working from home affects company culture 18:30 - Will companies downsize their offices? Eliminate them entirely? 23:04 - Permanent fixes for temporary problems 25:27 - Will everyone be back in the office in two years? 28:01 - Dean Jarley's final thoughts   Episode Transcription Spooky Voice:                   Submitted for your approval: a man gets up every day... he gets dressed, he drives to work, he interacts with 10,000 students. Paul Jarley:                         Well, hello there. Welcome to The College of Business. Spooky Voice:                   The year is 2020 and Dean Paul Jarley has entered ... Paul Jarley:                         Hello? Is anybody here? Spooky Voice:                   The Twilight Zone. Paul Jarley:                         Tina? Tiff? Josh? Anybody here? Paul Jarley:                         This show is all about separating hype from fundamental change. I'm Paul Jarley, dean of The College of Business, here at UCF. I've got lots of questions. Paul Jarley:                         To get answers, I'm talking to people with interesting insights into the future of business. Have you ever wondered, is this really a thing? On to our show. Paul Jarley:                         Seven months into this pandemic and the UCF College of Business is largely empty. Office occupancy can't be greater than 10%. Many of my employees don't want to return to work. They tell me they can get their work done from home, just fine. Paul Jarley:                         It makes me wonder what I should do with all this space, but I have to admit, I'm not really sure what I'd turn it into. Maybe an apartment for me, so I never have to leave work? Perhaps dorms for students? Maybe, I could lease it all out to Amazon as warehousing space? I'm not really sure. Paul Jarley:                         To help me think about the future of office space, I've assembled a panel of experts. Listen in. Paul Jarley:                         If anybody can remember what life was like before March, could you talk a little bit about what the trends in class A office space has been, over the last few years? What have been the major trends that you are all seeing? Paul Jarley:                         Bill, do you want to kick us off? Bill Moss:                            So, everything was fine while I was still in the industry at CDRE. Since I left, it's all gone haywire. Paul Jarley:                         Bill Moss was the managing partner of CBRE. It's the largest commercial real estate brokerage company here in central Florida. Paul Jarley:                         These days, he's the director of the Dr. P. Phillips Institute for Research and Education in Real Estate at UCF. Bill Moss:                            Maybe Steve could kick things off with really,

As cardboard cutouts occupy the stands at stadiums across the country, sports leagues and teams are dealing with a massive blow to their bottom line. If fans are stuck watching the game from home, it begs the question... how long can sports really be financially viable? Can exclusive, virtual experiences fill the budgetary void left by the absence of ticket sales? Or can the leagues just shoulder the economic consequences until stadiums and arenas are back at full capacity?   Featured Guests Brian Wright - General Manager, San Antonio Spurs Shelly Wilkes - Senior Vice President, Orlando Magic Jon Alba - Sports Reporter/Anchor, Spectrum Sports - News 13 Episode Highlights 2:00 - What's missing from sports in the pandemic 4:27 - The media landscape for sports in 2020 5:56 - How the NBA is doing during COVID-19 7:16 - What the future could hold for sports 9:54 - A new model for sports monetization 13:01 - Media owned sports leagues? 19:50 - Will there be fans in the building next season? 26:23 - Final thoughts from the panel 30:06 - Dean Jarley's final thoughts   Episode Transcription Jon Alba:                             The pitcher for the Washington Nationals just knocked this out of the park when he said that sports are like the reward of a functioning society. Jon Alba:                             [crosstalk 00:00:08]. Jon Alba:                             Mr President. Paul Jarley:                         If you watched the presidential debate like I did, you might think, well, we don't deserve sports at all. This show is all about separating height from fundamental change. I'm Paul Jarley, Dean of the College of Business here at UCF. I've got lots of questions. To get answers, I'm talking to people with interesting insights into the future of business. Have you ever wondered, is this really a thing? Onto our show. Paul Jarley:                         Life, for me, had a glimmer of normalcy with this. Paul Jarley:                         First, it was Korean baseball. Then it was MLS, followed by the NHL, and the NBA. They all started in bubbles. Major League Baseball returned to play in their regular venues, but all these restarts were missing one thing, spectators. The seats were empty. We've seen some baby steps towards the return of paying customers and seats in football but the question remains, how long can sports really be a thing if the stadiums are, well, mostly empty? Paul Jarley:                         Luckily, I know people on the inside who can help us understand what's going on in sports today. How long this disruption might last and how sports might look different going forward. Listen in. Paul Jarley:                         Is the current arrangement sustainable financially? How long can the leagues operate without spectators before this becomes a real financial problem? Shelly Wilkes:                   Well, I can jump in. Paul Jarley:                         Shelly Wilkes is a graduate of the DeVos Sports Business Management Program here in the college, and was the president of the Lakeland Magic. Now, she's a senior VP for the parent club, the Orlando Magic. Shelly Wilkes:                   I think this is not really sustainable. I don't think it's sustainable from a society standpoint or a team ownership standpoint. I think that we, as sports leagues, really bring fans together, we bring communities together that's really what we build our businesses upon, is how do we bring a group of people together to cheer for one common cause. I think that in the short term, everyone understands where we are as a country, where we are as a world with the pandemic. We're making changes and sacrifices where necessary so that we can continue the game on the field or on the courts. I think everyone wants sports to come back in its entirety. We want to have arenas full. Shelly Wilkes:                   I mean,

Two researchers at UCF are developing a cough drop that can reduce the spread of COVID-19 by making saliva heavier and stickier - it makes sneeze and cough particles fall rather than float. But is there really a market for such a product? Paul Jarley talks with researchers Michael Kinzel and Kareem Ahmed to find out the science behind the lozenge, how soon it could hit store shelves and the similarities to products you already have around the house.   Featured Guests Kareem Ahmed - Assistant Professor, College of Engineering & Computer Science, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Michael Kinzel - Assistant Professor, College of Engineering & Computer Science, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Cameron Ford - Director, UCF Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership Michael Pape - Dr. Phillips Entrepreneur in Residence; Lecturer, Management Episode Highlights 0:49 - The origin of the COVID-19 cough drop idea 2:58 - How mechanical engineers got into cough drops 5:18 - How can the COVID cough drop make it to stores? 7:58 - Legal hurdles for the COVID cough drop 11:53 - Who is the target audience for this? 16:27 - How long will it take to get to market? 25:42 - ...Ketchup? 28:48 - What are the learning lessons for students? 33:07 - Final thoughts from Paul Jarley, Cameron Ford and Michael Pape Click to listen to the extended "geek" edition of this episode or visit business.ucf.edu/podcast!   Episode Transcription Paul Jarley:                         2020 has been the year of the coronavirus, and big money is being put in to find a vaccine. But what if I told you that the spread of COVID isn't a medical problem, but rather an engineering one. And that two UCF Aerospace Engineers might have a simple, low-cost solution. Would you invest in their project? Paul Jarley:                         This show is all about separating hype from fundamental change. I'm Paul Jarley, Dean of the College of Business here at UCF. I've got lots of questions. To get answers, I'm talking to people with interesting insights into the future of business. Have you ever wondered, is this really a thing? Onto our show. Paul Jarley:                         Ideas come from unexpected places. Listen to Michael Kinzel, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at UCF. Explain the origin of the idea for a COVID cough drop. Michael Kinzel:                 It was kind of funny, right? My wife was arguing with one of our neighbors on Facebook, about aerosols and how far they can kind of pass from one person to another. And one of the things about aerosols is they're very small, and if you cough, for example, at that time, they were showing that... Actually not cough, sneeze, if you sneeze, they were showing that these aerosols can travel at 27 feet. My wife was arguing with neighbors like, "Hey, you need to be careful as you go by somebody, maybe move out of the sidewalk." Because of these aerosols. And it drove me to think, how do you make these... What do we do in engineering to make things not form aerosols? Michael Kinzel:                 And one of the things that drives that is underlying fluid dynamics processes that associated with how thick your fluid is. So for example, if you think about trying to make small droplets out of oil, it's a lot more difficult than making small droplets out of water, or even on the other end alcohol. So this is kind of driving, it was kind of, how do you get to a scenario where you don't enable droplets to travel 27 feet? And if you make them large, they're no longer aerosols and they have a tendency to fall. So one way to potentially enable that is by making a lozenge that actually alters your saliva. So that it behaves or has a tendency to form these large droplets that don't persist for very long distances. Paul Jarley:                         Okay. So first, Michael,

As the name explains, The Invitational is the UCF College of Business' invite-only career fair, designed to connect top business students with employers and college partners seeking to fill internships within their organization. In this episode, Paul Jarley speaks with employers and recruiters to learn the best tactics to help you find your dream job.   Featured Guests Amanda Valiente - Eli Lilly Mateo Perez - Enterprise Rent-A-Car Brittney Brown - City Furniture Dylan D'Orazio - Gartner   Episode Transcription Episode transcription coming soon! Listen to all episodes of "Is This Really a Thing?" at business.ucf.edu/podcast.

A media darling of sorts, UCF economist Sean Snaith's presentations across Central Florida tend to be an 80/20 mix of economic forecasting and comedy sketches. But the Director of the UCF Institute for Economic Forecasting means business - his forecasts have been named one of the nation's most accurate. This episode takes a "behind-the-scenes" look at Snaith's forecasting methods while exploring his thoughts on the state of the Florida economy in 2020.   Featured Guests Sean Snaith - Director, UCF Institute for Economic Forecasting Erika Hodges - Director, Communications & Marketing, UCF College of Business Jessica Dourney - Assistant Director, Outreach & Engagement, UCF College of Business Episode Highlights 1:48 - Paul Jarley introduces Sean Snaith 2:37 - What the Florida economy is going through 3:28 - Commentary from the "Mean Girls" 4:14 - Florida's housing market 07:04 - Sean Snaith: "King of the Nerds" 11:09 - Growth by industry in Florida 15:06 - Job and population growth in the state 17:01 - Questions from the audience 21:30 - Paul Jarley's final thoughts   Episode Transcription Paul Jarley:                         Sean Snaith is central Florida's favorite economic forecaster. Sean has been named one of the nation's most accurate forecasters by Bloomberg News and as appeared on pretty much every media outlet from the Wall Street Journal to the BBC. But he has some very strange hobbies. Sean Snaith:                       If you've heard me speak over the years, you know I have an affinity for SkyMall. Paul Jarley:                         You remember SkyMall, It's the defunct inflight shopping catalog that survives on the internet. Well, Sean, he might just be their biggest fan. Sean Snaith:                       The Dean called it a fetish, I think, last year, which, that sounds a little dirty. Paul Jarley:                         He's also a bit of a diva who dreams of becoming a viral internet sensation? Sean Snaith:                       So, everybody can't be a social influencer though. I mean, I think that's where they all want to be. I do too. Quite frankly, I've got 1300 on Twitter. I don't know what I can offer to them, but. Paul Jarley:                         And he hates being handled, especially by the college's so called mean girls. Sean Snaith:                       There's a group of, largely women, in the college of business and there'll be shaking you down for money here at the end of the event, but I like to refer to them collectively as the mean girls and they sort of followed me since middle school and they make fun of my clothing and my glasses and things like that. Speaker 3:                           I don't know if you've seen his PowerPoint slides, but we think they date back to the mid 1980s. Paul Jarley:                         Is Sean Snaith really worth all this trouble? Are those forecasts right? Or do those mean girls have a point? Speaker 4:                           That is so fetch. Speaker 5:                           Gretchen, stop trying to make fetch happen. It's not going to happen. Paul Jarley:                         This issue is all about separating hype from fundamental change. I'm Paul Jarley, Dean of the College of Business here at UCF, I've got lots of questions. To get answers, I'm talking to people with interesting insights into the future of business. Have you ever wondered, is this really a thing? Onto our show. Paul Jarley:                         This podcast is a condensed version of a talk Sean gave at our recent Dean Speaker Series, where he provided his economic forecast for both the US and Florida economies. Since Sean had already weighed in on the US economy as part of our podcast on whether the 2020 recession is really a thing, we focused today's show on his predictions for the Florida economy. We're calling this the mean girl edition because I've given the team th...

In the midst of the longest economic recovery in American history, the big question is when the next recession will hit. With unemployment reaching record lows, job growth skyrocketing and consumer confidence at an all-time high, some economists see no end in sight for the expansion that began in 2009. On the other hand, manufacturing is at a 10-year low while the U.S.-China trade war continues. Can the U.S. really avoid a recession in 2020? Or is the bubble about to pop?   Featured Guests Glenn Hubbard '79 - Economist; Chairman of the Board, MetLife Inc. Sean Snaith - Director, UCF Institute for Economic Forecasting John Solow - Kenneth White and James Xander Professor in Economics, UCF College of Business Sami Alpanda - Associate Professor, Economics, UCF College of Business Episode Highlights 0:48 - What's most likely to cause a recession? 2:38 - Where the U.S. economy currently stands 4:29 - Thoughts from a microeconomist 6:20 - How consumers play into today's economy 9:06 - The role of political tension in the economy 11:18 - Paul Jarley's final thoughts   Episode Transcription Transcription coming soon! Listen to all episodes of "Is This Really a Thing?" at business.ucf.edu/podcast.

A lot of people don't really like change. But can they be coached or managed through the change process to understand and truly appreciate its benefits in the workplace? Guest host Thad Seymour, Interim President of UCF, introduces a panel of staff members from Addition Financial to discuss their recent re-brand initiative and what they learned from undergoing a massive, company-wide change.   Featured Guests Thad Seymour, Ph.D. - Interim President, University of Central Florida Jordan George - Head of Leadership & Talent Development, Addition Financial Christina Lehman - Marketing Manager, Addition Financial Kerby Pickens - Manager of Leadership & Talent Development, Addition Financial Episode Highlights 0:39 - Introduction from UCF Interim President Thad Seymour, Ph.D. 2:26 - The difficulty of change within an organization 8:22 - How to implement change 16:27 - What makes people resistant to change? 19:34 - "How Stella Saved the Farm" 29:20 - Common mistakes to avoid as a leader 40:27 - Addition Financial's experience with change 46:36 - Thad Seymour's final thoughts   Episode Transcription Jordan George:                 We're really excited to dive into this topic around changed management. Something that I know that you have overseen a lot in your time at UCF and certainly we're experiencing a lot internally right now with the name change from CFE to Addition Financial. Getting ready for an acquisition in the next couple of months here. So as we think about change and how disruptive it can be, why is effective change management so difficult? Paul Jarley:                         Well, the short answer is people don't like change. It's uncomfortable for them. But if you drill down into it, I think it comes down to a few things. If your change is very fundamental, a lot of people came to the organization, they were attracted to it maybe because of a specific mission or set of values or culture that you have. And if they see that change is threatening those things, they can have a very emotional reaction to that. People care deeply about those things. And they feel like they fit in an organization. And if they think that change threatens their fit with the organization, that can be a pretty traumatic experience for them. Paul Jarley:                         Secondly, organizations develop compensation systems and other kinds of reward systems that are in place to encourage the kinds of behaviors and outcomes that they want. And people know whether they're winning or losing under those systems. Or perhaps they've come to be comfortable with wherever they are kind of in the hierarchy of that system. And if those initially proposed change is going to threaten that they get pretty nervous about that. That's their livelihood, at one level, and that can be very disconcerting. Another real problem here is generally in a change process, the costs of the change are borne first by people. They're really well known and they're at a minimum irritating and maximum kind of threatening to their security. The benefits are all about the future. And those are kind of fuzzy and they're kind of unknown. Paul Jarley:                         So unless you have a change that's being motivated by something that's really compelling and urgent and threatens the entire organization, and it's just going to force a change, people tend to focus on the cost side of the change, rather than the benefit side of the change. If you're a leader in the organization, the hardest thing I think it is for a leader to do is to get people to see a future they have yet to experience. That's really, really difficult for people. And if they don't see that future experience as something that's going to benefit them personally, they're going to resist it. Jordan George:                 I like what you said about, we receive the cost of the change before we receive the benefits of the change up front.

With new technology comes new ways to shop online and find a good deal, but retailers also have new tools at their disposal to charge customers higher prices. "Retail guru" Anand Krishnamoorthy discusses how retailers exploit consumers' lack of knowledge to charge higher prices and how shoppers can beat retailers at their own game this holiday season (and on Black Friday).   Featured Guests Anand Krishnamoorthy - Associate Professor of Marketing, UCF College of Business Episode Highlights 1:10 - Opaque Selling 4:11 - Examples of opaque selling in the marketplace 10:59 - The truth about "list prices" 14:25 - The shopping experience and its influence 19:51 - Price matching 27:52 - The New York Times: Charging more for less? 35:13 - Variable ticket pricing 39:33 - Paul Jarley's final thoughts   Episode Transcription Anand Krishnamoorthy:               This is something that many of us on the State side may not be familiar with. Eurowings is a German low cost flyer that doesn't even tell you what your destination will be, before you pay up. You will not know where you're flying to until you pay up. Paul Jarley:                         Here's a tip for value conscious holiday shoppers everywhere. You probably don't want to buy two tickets on that airline. This show is all about separating hype from fundamental change. I'm Paul Jarley, Dean of the College of Business here at UCF. I've got lots of questions. To get answers, I'm talking to people with interesting insights into the future of business. Have you ever wondered, "Is this really a thing?" Onto our show. Paul Jarley:                         Everybody knows that person who will go to great lengths to get a deal, but is a deal ever really a deal? We're bringing back our retail guru, Anand Krishnamoorthyorthy to explain to you that a deal, well, probably isn't really a thing. With pricing games, there's always a loser and Anand explains, that's usually you, listen in. Anand Krishnamoorthy:               What I'll do today is talk about three broad topics in pricing games. The first of which is what we refer to as opaque selling, where product attributes are hidden. Then we'll talk about where pricing cues are hidden. We'll start off with something that firms do a lot of, which is cost plus pricing. Some of you are familiar with this term, at least you've used it in the past, which is, you figured out your cost, tack on a markup, and then figure out your price based on that. Anand Krishnamoorthy:               Many firms practices, but if you ask them, they will not admit to it because it's a decidedly unsophisticated way to price. So why is it a problem? Let's start one, you're pricing based on things that consumers have no idea about. Consumers usually don't know what a firm's costs are. Even if they knew, why would you care? Why would a firm's production process of manufacturing plant factor into how much you'd be willing to pay? Anand Krishnamoorthy:               As a way of maybe channeling venture payroll's book, it's because costs don't care about consumer feelings. Costs are based off of things that consumers don't care about at all. It is consumers wanting benefits, consumers wanting other attributes, et cetera, rather than costs. Anand Krishnamoorthy:               To put it another way, if I'm inefficient, and I work for you and I take three days to do a job that you expect done in one, would you pay me three times as much? No. Then why would you expect firms to pay for consumers in terms of costs? Consumers do not want to compensate firms for their ineptitude, why would you expect cost to drive pricing? Anand Krishnamoorthy:               So then perhaps better ways to price would be, price based on consumer benefits. That is, figuring out what consumers want, price based off of that. Consumers would want that, ideally. The problem is, consumer benefits are very hard to figure out. In fact,

Presidential candidates on both sides of the aisle point to a host of different factors for the state of the U.S. economy. With an economic recession on the way, renowned economist Glenn Hubbard joins UCF Business faculty John Solow, Sami Alpanda and Paul Jarley to discuss the hot topic of income inequality and when we can expect the current expansion to hit a wall. Is a recession really on our doorstep?   Featured Guests Glenn Hubbard '79 - Economist; Chairman of the Board, MetLife Inc. John Solow - Kenneth White and James Xander Professor in Economics, UCF College of Business Sami Alpanda - Associate Professor, Economics, UCF College of Business Episode Highlights 1:02 - Guest introductions 3:02 - Rising income inequality 7:24 -Technical disruption in the workplace 15:54 - Politcal response to a changing economy 21:00 - Trade wars 25:35 - Rising healthcare and pharmaceutical costs 29:46 - President Trump, politicians on the economy 33:41 - Questions from the audience 40:48 - Paul Jarley's final thoughts   Episode Transcription Paul Jarley:                         The economy is a thing. The national election is a thing. But, the stuff politicians talk about on the way to Election Day? Well, those aren't always things. We've assembled a panel of experts. Listen up, people. Paul Jarley:                         This year was all about separating hype from fundamental change. I'm Paul Jarley, dean of the College of Business here at UCF. I've got lots of questions. To get answers, I'm talking to people with interesting insights into the future of business. Have you ever wondered, is this really a thing? On to our show. Paul Jarley:                         This podcast comes from an event where we were celebrating Glen Hubbard, and his gift to endow a professorship in economics. Listen in. Paul Jarley:                         I didn't want to resist the huge opportunity I had today to get together a panel to talk a little bit about the relationship between the economy and the political election that's coming up. So we're going to talk a little bit about whether a number of things are sort of a thing, or not in as non-political a way as we can here. Paul Jarley:                         I have three panelists with me today to help me understand some things. Most of you know Glenn Hubbard. What you may not know is Glenn Hubbard is a graduate of our economics department at UCF. He studied here. He is currently the chairman of the board of MetLife and is the former dean of the Columbia Business School. He is still a professor there, and I like to joke with Glenn, after you're a dean, the comment that you always make is you get to go back to be part of the problem, right, and then, the part of solution, and he's enjoying that a great deal. Glenn Hubbard:               Totally. Totally. Paul Jarley:                         Right now. Paul Jarley:                         Next to Glenn is John Solow. John is new to the college this year. He spent many years at Iowa. In fact, John and I were assistant professors together many, many years ago. And, he sits in the White, Xander endowed Professorship in Economics that Glenn and Glenn's wife, Constance, has funded. Glenn Hubbard:               [inaudible 00:02:01]. Paul Jarley:                         And, it's not named after them. It's named after the two faculty members, who were most influential to Glenn while he was here becoming an economist. That's really awesome, and we're really glad to have John with us today. Paul Jarley:                         My last guest is Sami Alpanda. Sami is an associate professor in the Department of Economics and spent four years? Sami Alpanda:                   [inaudible 00:02:22] there? Yes. Paul Jarley:                         Four years at the central Bank of Canada. So I thought he would also bring kind of a really interesting perspective to what we're going ...

Many successful people are sleep deprived, but that doesn't mean coffee and energy drinks are the keys to business success. In fact, these individuals are likely successful despite their lack of sleep — not because of it. Is shaving off a few hours of sleep really worth the extra time? Jeff Gish, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Management at UCF College of Business, explains how sleep plays a pivotal role in the development of new ideas and business ventures.   Featured Guests Jeff Gish - Assistant Professor, Management Episode Highlights 0:46 - Paul Jarley's introductory thoughts 1:39 - The effects of sleep on entrepreneurship 8:58 - How does sleep effect the evaluation of ideas? 17:56 - Jeff Gish's sleep deprivation experiment 23:13 - Solving your sleep equation 25:05 - Questions from the audience   Episode Transcription Paul Jarley:                         Tom Ford, fashion designer, gets three; Donald Trump says he gets three to four; Martha Stewart, under four; Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter, four to six; Barack Obama, six. Successful people tell us if you want to get ahead, you need to work more and sleep less. It's the price of success, but is it? Paul Jarley:                         This show is all about separating hype from fundamental change. I'm Paul Jarley, Dean of the College of Business here at UCF. I've got lots of questions. To get answers, I'm talking to people with interesting insights into the future of business. Have you ever wondered, is this really a thing? Onto our show. Paul Jarley:                         Today's podcast is from a Dean's speaker series talk by Jeff Gish. Jeff is a professor in our management department and is an expert in entrepreneurship. He hasn't just studied it. He's actually lived it. As an entrepreneur, he spent a lot of sleepless hours trying to get his business off the ground. His insights are really meant to be an intervention for my chief of operations, Tiffany Hughes. You all know a Tiffany. She's that person who never sleeps. She sends you calendar requests at three in the morning. She responds to your emails overnight. And she's at work before you are. If you plead with her to stop, she answers you with something like, "I just have to get this done." Mercifully, my Tiffany doesn't really understand Twitter, but does it really need to be this way? Or is this workaholic culture that we're all in just getting in our way? Listen in. Jeff Gish:                             Let's get into this talk about sleep and entrepreneurship. And I've titled it, money never sleeps, but entrepreneurs should. That's very prescriptive. I hope that you agree by the end of this presentation, and I'd like to start off the talk with this quote from Ben Horowitz. Ben Horowitz is co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz. It's a VC firm over in the West Coast, but he's a former CEO too, a former founder. When he talks about his CEO experience or his founding experience, he says, "When I was a startup CEO, I slept like a baby. I woke up every two hours and cried." I share this quote because it's a little bit funny. It gets people engaged, but it's also very true. I had a business with 57 employees before joining the academic realm, and I felt a lot of pressure when I was an entrepreneur. And this person felt the pressure too, it was hard to sleep. Jeff Gish:                             And on top of that, you feel like your business is so important. There's this tension in entrepreneurship that your business is so important that how can you sleep when you've got to keep things afloat and keep things moving. Ben Horowitz picks up on that in this quote, and I picked up on this with my coauthors that wrote this paper that was just recently published. Just the fact that entrepreneurs are of this culture that I'll sleep when I die, or sleep is for weaklings. I was a person who touted those messages as a small business entrepreneur.

Everyone fails. It is part of life. Rather than pretend it won’t happen, you should count on it. We challenged our students to submit their best failure stories and explain the lesson they learned. Now you get to vote for your favorite.   Featured Guests Petrice Cineus, Student Sam Kotenko, Student Kevin Velazquez, Student Episode Highlights 0:38 - Failure Competition Introduction 1:43 - Kevin's failure story 5:54 - Petrice's failure story 16:26 - Sam's failure story 24:48 - Follow-up questions from Dean Jarley   Episode Transcription Transcription coming soon.   Cast Your Vote! This poll has closed.   Listen to all episodes of "Is This Really a Thing?" at business.ucf.edu/podcast.

With open banking, is technology creating a decentralized future of banking? Smartphone apps like Mint and Personal Capital paved the way for customers to access the entirety of their financial data in one place, but now, major banks are beginning to enter the open banking game. What are the repercussions for traditional banking institutions? What are the benefits and risks for consumers? And is this the beginning of the end of brick and mortar bank branches?   Featured Guests Charlie Lai, EVP/CIO, Fairwinds Credit Union Sumit Jha, Co-director, UCF Master of Science in FinTech Christo Pirinsky, Co-director, UCF Master of Science in FinTech Episode Highlights 1:55 - Panelist Introductions 2:55 - What is Open Banking? 9:05 - The current state of Open Banking 19:30 - Is this the end of traditional banking? 25:33 - Questions from the audience What is the single most important problem being solved by open banking and who's problem is it? Will open banking create a larger cybersecurity threat, or reduce the risk? Is ransomware a concern? Why should I hand over my personal data to these FinTech companies without any financial incentive? 33:05 - The biggest threat to Open Banking 36:05 - Dean Jarley's final thoughts   Episode Transcription   Paul Jarley:                         George Jetson, a man created in the 1960s to depict what life would be like in 2060. He lives in a city in the clouds. He drives a flying car that neatly folds up into a briefcase that he can carry into work. When he drops his kids off at school, he releases them in a pod that gently guides them to their destination. But when Jane, his wife, wants to go shopping, he tries to give her some cash. She takes his whole wallet. Cash, really? It's 2065 and George is still using cash. Maybe it's because nobody thought banks would innovate, or maybe it's just George's way of trying to control Jane's spending. Either way, it seems woefully out of date. George, my friend, do we have some stuff solutions for you. This show is all about separating hype from fundamental change. I'm Paul Jarley, Dean of the College of Business here at UCF. I've got lots of questions. To get answers, I'm talking to people with interesting insights into the future of business. Have you ever wondered, is this really a thing? On to our show. Paul Jarley:                         Today's podcast come straight from our Dean's Advisory Board meeting where we spent the afternoon talking about FinTech. The College of Business has partnered with the College of Engineering and Computer Science to launch a master's program in financial technology. Many of our board members have a keen interest in this topic. So we brought together a panel to talk about one of the many innovations in this sector, open banking. Today we're going to talk a little bit about a subject that I don't know very much about. I stumbled upon this a few weeks ago, which is often how we come up with ideas for the podcast, called open banking. And I have three people here who are going to help us understand what open banking is and whether or not it's going to be a thing going forward. So I'm going to ask each of our panelists to start off just by introducing themselves, and I'll start with Christo. Christo? Christo Pirinsky:               My name is Christo Pirinsky and I am a professor at the finance department, and I'm also the co-director of the FinTech program that we just launched. Paul Jarley:                         Sumit? Sumit Jha:                           Yeah, I'm Sumit Jha. I am professor in the computer science department, and co-director of the FinTech program from computer science, and my area of research is artificial intelligence, and we work on a variety of problems funded by DARPA, National Science Foundation, and a variety of other agencies that do not want to be named. Paul Jarley:                         Charlie?

United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno chats with Dean Paul Jarley on the state of space exploration. 50 years after the Apollo 11 moon landing, rocket launch technology has drastically improved and the prospect of commercial space travel is almost top of mind. Can space tourism really become the multi-billion dollar market that some expect it to be? And are Cape Canaveral and the Space Coast ready for the demand? Is space ready to be the final commercial frontier?   Featured Guests Tory Bruno - CEO, United Launch Alliance Episode Highlights 3:18 - How Tory Bruno became CEO of United Launch Alliance 5:48 - How United Launch Alliance came to be 8:42 - What's it like being involved in the space industry during such a competitive time? 12:36 - How much cheaper can rocket launches get? 13:34 - What kinds of companies could be most successful in utilizing space travel? 16:33 - When will humans live and work in space? Engage in space tourism? Get to Mars? 21:27 - What's the most important thing to know about the commercialization of space? 23:20 - Questions from the audience: Do you anticipate building things in space to avoid loss during launch? How do you see real property rights being involved in space? What's it like working with Blue Origin on the Vulcan engine? Have there been any attempts to develop insurance for spacecrafts? Does ULA have any plans to develop a heavy lift rocket? Where did you see the space industry headed when you started your career? Can you elaborate on the difference between components vs. propulsion? Why does ULA exist? 34:35 - Dean Paul Jarley's final thoughts   Episode Transcription   Paul Jarley:                         There are certain moments in time that stay with you. I remember where I was 50 years ago today. I was 10 years old. I was on the beach at a lake near my hometown, clutching a radio, and listening to mission control. It was 4:18 in the afternoon when Neil Armstrong said- Neil Armstrong:                Tranquility Base, here. The eagle has landed. Paul Jarley:                         The beach erupted in applause. Paul Jarley:                         This show is all about separating hype from fundamental change. I'm Paul Jarley, Dean of the College of Business here at UCF. I've got lots of questions. To get answers, I'm talking to people with interesting insights into the future of business. Have you ever wondered, "Is this really a thing?" Onto our show. Paul Jarley:                         The race to the moon was a race to glory that brought a much needed boost to democratic capitalism in its Cold War with totalitarian communism. But this was not the first time a group of explorers had set out for glory and to assert the political power of a government patron. Christopher Columbus comes to mind. There what started out as a search for glory, quickly turned to commercial interests complete with conquistadors searching for gold and pirates looking to steal it. Colonization and wars followed. Will history repeat itself? Is space ready to be the final commercial frontier? If so, can space pirates and colonization be far behind? Listen into my conversation with Tory Bruno. He's CEO of United Launch Alliance. In other words, a rocket man. He spoke to a group of business and engineering students earlier this year in The Exchange. Paul Jarley:                         So how cool is that? So, for my engineering students, this is The Exchange. And the idea behind The Exchange is that we have a speaker in here every day talking to business students about careers, about their career path. About how they might become part of an industry, if that's what they're interested in doing. And today we have kind of a double purpose. So, for those of you who don't know me, I'm Paul Jarley, I'm Dean of the College of Business here. And my job is largely to think about what the college should look like five yea...

  Some claim a company’s brand is its most valuable asset, while a logo can have a powerful impact on consumer behaviors. Household names like Coca-Cola, Tropicana and Gap are just a few examples of companies that have enjoyed tremendous success and endured rebranding failures. But how much can packaging, imagery and marketing tactics really inject new life into an unchanged product? And will a customer’s relationship with a brand really prevent them from buying into a competitor?   Featured Guests Carolyn Massiah - Associate Chair, Department of Marketing, UCF College of Business Episode Highlights 6:33 - What makes up a company's brand 13:58 - Why consumers form relationships with brands 17:55 - Reasons a company would benefit from a rebranding effort 29:11 - Tips to carry out a successful rebrand 40:56 - Dean Paul Jarley's final thoughts   Episode Transcription   Paul Jarley:                         FTU became UCF in 1978. Since that time would become the Knights, the Golden Knights, and the Knights again. Kentucky Fried Chicken became KFC in 1991. Backrub became Google in 1997. Deloitte added a green dot in 2003. Tropicana changed the packaging of its orange juice in 2009 and then changed it back. CFE Credit Union became Addition Financial in 2019. In all but the first case, I'm pretty sure some rebranding genius got paid a fortune. But seriously, does any of this really matter? Paul Jarley:                         This show is all about separating hype from fundamental change. I'm Paul Jarley. Dean of the College of Business here at UCF. I've got lots of questions. To get answers, I'm talking to people with interesting insights into the future of business. Have you ever wondered, "Is this really a thing?" Onto our show. Paul Jarley:                         I've been known to tell staff in meetings that I'm not the dean of that. It's my way of letting people know that I think their issue isn't worth my time. I hit upon this phrase back in my days at the University of Kentucky. The college had just gone through a rebranding effort, and one of my colleagues didn't like our new stationary. He was refusing to use it, and he wanted me to tell the dean that he should get a pass. After listening to this for 20 minutes I told him that I refuse to be the associate dean of stationary and asked him to get out of my office. The phrase just stuck with me. Paul Jarley:                         My marketing colleagues, on the other hand, would disagree with me. They think a company's brand is its most important asset and that any rebranding campaign is a process that is fraught with peril, like employees not embracing the change. Meh, maybe. Or maybe it's just a way for consultants to charge big bucks to help you design a new logo that they claim with rival the swoosh and make you the darlings of consumers everywhere. Paul Jarley:                         A few weeks ago we hosted our last dean speaker series of the academic year, and given that our sponsor, CFE Credit Union, had just changed its name to Addition Financial, we thought it was the perfect time to have Dr. Caroline Massiah address the whole rebranding thing. It was such an engaging discussion that we decided to turn it into our latest podcast. Carolyn Massiah:             I'm going to begin with a quick, funny travel story, and it will help us lead into the discussion. Carolyn Massiah:             This past weekend I had to go, not had, I wanted to, I went to Boston. My goddaughter got married and, first of all, for those of us in Florida, when we travel anywhere, we forget that the rest of the world doesn't have the same weather all year around, so I experienced three seasons in three days in Boston. Carolyn Massiah:             The other thing that happened, we get to the airport to return home and my teenage son and I, my husband was staying behind for business, my teenage son and I, we board the plane.

As technology rapidly improves and provides people with a never-ending list of ways to stay connected, those responsible for urban planning are finding new ways to integrate connectedness with essential city services. Cities like Orlando are jumping into the smart city movement with hopes to build a data-driven infrastructure that will support safer, cleaner and more efficient travel and an improved quality of life for the community. However, some are concerned the introduction of smart cities could infringe on citizens' safety, security and privacy. So, is any of this really possible? And is your average resident interested in living in a smart city?   Featured Guests: Mike Hess - Smart City Project Director, City of Orlando Craig Ustler - Owner and President, Ustler Development, Inc. Episode Transcription:   Paul Jarley:                         When I worked at the University of Kentucky, I swore I would vote for any politician who could synchronize the stop lights on Harrisburg Road and cut my travel time to and from work. Smart city initiatives promise to make city life more efficient. But are people really willing to give up their privacy on the promise that Big Brother can cut down on their commute time or save them money on their energy bill? And honestly, if smart cities require smart politicians, I'm skeptical. Paul Jarley:                         This show is all about separating hype from fundamental change. I'm Paul Jarley, Dean of the College of Business here at UCF. I've got lots of questions. To get answers, I'm talking to people with interesting insights into the future of business. Have you ever wondered, is this really a thing? On to our show. Paul Jarley:                         So about a year ago I was half asleep in a meeting of deans when somebody said the term smart cities and I hadn't heard that before, so I wrote it down and I will have to tell you, my initial thought was, "Dang, those people in Silicon Valley have the best marketers in the world." I mean, who could be against smart cities? Paul Jarley:                         So I wanted to do some learning about that and what that really means and whether the marketing is far ahead of the reality or not and what it's likely to do to my world and my students' world going forward. So a couple of people have graciously agreed to join me today who have some opinions on it and I'm going to probe their opinions a little bit. Paul Jarley:                         So, next to me is Craig Ustler. Craig leading the master development team for the Creative Village here in downtown Orlando. He is also co-developing several vertical projects at Creative Village, including a $105 million student housing project that'd better be ready by August 2019, or we will have a lot of homeless students downtown. Paul Jarley:                         We're also joined by Mike Hess. Mike is the smart city director for the city of Orlando. He's a Leed fellow and mechanical engineer. He was recently brought on board by the city of Orlando to lead off their smart city efforts. He's worked as the VP of smart and sustainable buildings for Panasonic Smart City team. And he has worked on several smart city projects across the US. Paul Jarley:                         So, let's start at the beginning. What the heck is a smart city? Craig, you want to? Craig Ustler:                       There's a couple answers. So one is sort of consistent with your experience. It's become a buzzword that is somewhat self-invented through some marketing folks and real estate folks. And it means in theory, this idea that you're going to use data driven or the Internet of Things and whatnot to connect everything and measure it and analyze it and make things more efficient. Craig Ustler:                       I sort of choose to turn the term and I say cities are smart and suburbs are dumb. I sort of feel like the city by definition is smart,

Some people are born with leadership skills, but that doesn't necessarily mean others can't learn. Dr. James T. Brown packs an impressive 16 years of increasingly responsible leadership positions at NASA and later worked as a consultant and trainer in leadership, project management and decision making before becoming a faculty member at the UCF College of Business. Dr. Brown is simply an expert in leadership training and project management. But does teaching someone what makes a leader mean they can become a leader themselves?   Featured Guests: James T. Brown - Lecturer, Integrated Business, UCF College of Business Episode Transcription:   Paul Jarley:                         It's not uncommon to hear people say, "You can't teach leadership. Leaders are born, not made." It's a fair argument. Quality of leadership isn't always something that can be measured. And you just can't expect to become a leader by reading stuff out of a book. After all, you don't become a chef by studying a cookbook. You have to cook. But that doesn't mean theory from the classroom can't be put into practice. Paul Jarley:                         This show is all about separating hype from fundamental change. I'm Paul Jarley, Dean of the College of Business, here at UCF. I've got lots of questions. To get answers, I'm talking to people with interesting insights into the future of business. Have you ever wondered, "Is this really a thing?" On to our show. Paul Jarley:                         This episode features one out our Integrated Business faculty. Dr. James T. Brown, is an engineer at heart. He spent more than 15 years at NASA. He later used this experience to offer consulting and training services on leadership, project management, and decision making, to companies both small and large. Every month, we pick one of our faculty members to address a crowd of local business partners and alumni at an event we call The Dean's Speaker Series. This time, we invited Dr. Brown to talk about what makes a good leader, some of the worst pitfalls he's ever seen, and how to avoid some of these missteps. Naturally, we pulled out the best parts, and turned it into a podcast. I hope you enjoy. James T. Brown:               Project management is an art. That is why everybody can't do it. I don't care how much process you have, doesn't make a difference. Project management is an art. Just like art, it has principles. Every artist knows what happens when you mix red and yellow. `The principles are there, but the actual application of it is an art. It's very difficult. James T. Brown:               There's a little girl. You may have heard of her before. She shows up at the three bears' house. And she says, "Too hot. Too cold. Too hard. Too soft." What is she looking for? Crowd:                                 [crosstalk 00:02:06] James T. Brown:               Just right. This is what we're looking for with process. Just right. Can you give me the just right amount of process? And good process is born out of leadership. You get the leadership right, the process will be right. You can't take process and be successful in the absence of leadership. James T. Brown:               The reason I wrote a book on program management and not project management is this. Most project failure isn't caused by the project manager. It's caused by the people above them. The people above them are the ones that put the project managers in a position that makes it difficult for them to be successful. So a lot of what I talked about today with leadership, it applies to project managers, but it also applies to those people that are above them. James T. Brown:               So this is our, our breakfast menu today. The one that's underlined there, establish accountability and clear direction. That's what I'm going to talk about first. So establish accountability and clear direction. I was in the company headquarters.

Starting a business with no money or funding could be easier than you think. Jesse Wolfe, founder and CEO of O'Dang Hummus, got his start at UCF with some big ideas and little capital. Several years later, he's CEO of a multi-million dollar business and has turned the salad dressing industry on its head. But one success story does not mean everyone could do it...   Featured Guests: Jesse Wolfe - Founder / President, O'Dang Hummus Cameron Ford - Director, UCF Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership Michael Pape - Dr. Phillips Entrepreneur in Residence; Lecturer, Management Donna Mackenzie - Executive Director, StarterStudio Carol Ann Dykes Logue - Site Manager, UCF Business Incubator Episode Transcription:   Voice:                                "If you build it, he will come." Terence Mann:                "He will come, Ray. He will most definitely come." Paul Jarley:                       That's my favorite line from Field of Dreams. But, what if you can't build it? Jesse Wolfe:                     It came out to a $700,000, almost a million dollar, order. And they needed them to be about $10 a cart and I could not figure out how to get them below $25 a cart. Paul Jarley:                       Or, what if they don't come? Cameron Ford:                The Google Glass, people started using it out in public and stuff like that, and quickly were scorned as being what were described as Glass-holes. My understanding is they pulled from the market. Paul Jarley:                       Lean start up offers a different approach, but is it really a thing? Or, is it just academics hyping the scientific method? Paul Jarley:                       This show is all about separating hype from fundamental change. I'm Paul Jarley, Dean of the College of Business here at UCF. I've got lots of questions. To get answers, I'm talking to people with interesting insights into the future of business. Have you ever wondered, is this really a thing? Onto our show. Paul Jarley:                       This is how significant businesses started back in the day. Michael Pape:                 What we were, I'll just say, required to do as an entrepreneur with VCs with trying to get, maybe, economic development funds. Paul Jarley:                       Yup. Michael Pape:                 And this was in the biotech space. Paul Jarley:                       That's Dr. Michael Pape, Professor of Practice here in the College of Business, and Director of our UpStarts program. Michael Pape:                 So it was a tech-oriented business that I've been involved in, was write the business plan, and I have sat down, myself and with my teams, of writing the 40 to 60 page business plan. The fat startup, if I may define it that way, had you do that. Venture capitalists would request it, and they would want to make sure that you saw the plan from beginning to end. Paul Jarley:                       Then a funny thing happened starting in the early 1990s. Universities started to develop entrepreneurship programs. They did this partly to serve their economic development missions, partly because donors loved to give money to this cause and partly because more and more students became interested in entrepreneurship as a career path. Paul Jarley:                       In the early 1990s, ideals spun out of Stanford, with an emphasis on design thinking. Another decade passed and Berkeley started developing what has come to be known as lean start up. It had a coming out party in 2011, with the publication of Eric Riles book by the same name. But, are universities and business schools really the place to start businesses? Paul Jarley:                       I had my doubts. We excel at getting rule followers great jobs in companies who are looking for functional talent. We really aren't geared up to help people who want to color outside the lines, pursue their crazy dreams,

Featured Guests: Sean Snaith - Director, UCF Instiute for Economic Competitiveness Don Unser - Retail President Anand Krishnamoorthy - Associate Professor of Marketing Jahir Hernandez - Student, Former Old Navy employee Tina Hand - Dean's Assistant Jessica Dourney - Assistant Director of Outreach and Engagement Episode Transcription:   Paul Jarley:                         Black Friday used to sound like this. Jahir Hernandez:             They come in waves and I remember specifically that the check out line was all the way to the back of the store and you couldn't get from one side of the store to the other because that line was so massive. Paul Jarley:                         And now ... News Anchor:                    News Center 6 team’s Joshua Short is inside the UP Mall where the doors will be opening in just under an hour from now. Josh how are things going. News Reporter:                Look we were expecting a big crowd. We don't have the big crowd that we expected. I got up at three o'clock excited to do my first ever black Friday and ain't nobody here. I am literally upset right now. I don't know why people did not wake up. Paul Jarley:                         Where did all the shoppers go? Tina Hand:                          Wasn't worth it so I haven't done it probably for the last five years. Jessica Dourney:              I won't be there cuz I'll be watching the UCF Knights, our national champs, playing at the, in Tampa. Paul Jarley:                         Eh, maybe they'll shop on Monday. Paul Jarley:                         This show is all about separating hype from fundamental change. I'm Paul Jarley, Dean of the College of Business here at UCF. I've got lots of questions to get answers, I'm talking to people with interesting insights into the future of business. Have you ever wondered, is this really a thing? On to our show. Paul Jarley:                         UCF student Jahir Hernandez recalls his most vivid Black Friday memory. It was from behind the cash register at an Old Navy. Jahir Hernandez:             The pleasure and the privilege of working Black Friday, my hours were from 1:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. Paul Jarley:                         Jahir didn't love it. Jahir Hernandez:             My most vivid memories would definitely be that rush I think at around 9:00 a.m. where people kinda get up, they have that turkey hangover where they're done with that. They come in waves, and I remember specifically that the actual checkout line was all the way to the back of the store and you couldn't get from one side of the store to the other because that line was so massive. You have people that are super nice that maybe they've worked in retail before, they understand the craziness. You also have those other people that are there just to get whatever they want and they're very upset. Paul Jarley:                         Who's responsible? When did all this holiday shopping madness get its start? Black Friday isn't as old as you think. It started in Philadelphia back in the 1950s, and got its name from police officers who hated being dragged out the day after Thanksgiving to deal with the local shopping madness. It didn't become a national phenomenon until the 1980s, and by then it was reinvented to be the day that retailers finally got into the black, well, at least that's the story. Don Unser is a USF alum and retail group president at NPD. NPD is the nation's leading retail sales data company. If anyone would know when retail companies turn into the black, it would be them. And well Don, he's a little skeptical of the story. Don Unser:                         The original roots of Black Friday, it was a point in time at which the retailer turned for the year to be profitable, and there are a lot of myth busting things out there that said did that really happen or did that not happen. I guess back when we had a traditional predictab...

Featured Guests: Stan Horton - Former Enron Executive; President & CEO, Boardwalk Pipeline Partners, LP Scott Keith - Regional President, North & Central Florida Region, BB&T Marshall Schminke - BB&T Professor of Business Ethics (Management) Robert Folger - Distinguished Alumni Endowed Professor in Business Ethics Merrell Bailey - Managing Partner, Your Caring Law Firm Episode Transcription:   Stan Horton:                      I was on the Enron executive committee when the company went bankrupt. I just witnessed firsthand how a company can implode just due to poor ethics. I saw good people do bad things. Paul Jarley:                         It's not just about good people doing bad things. Marshall Schminke:        But it's also interesting to figure out why bad people do bad things and good people do good things. Right? Paul Jarley:                         It focuses on what people do rather than what authorities say they should do. Rob Folger:                         The advent of behavioral ethics was the advent of doing research on what people do and why they do it rather than telling them what they should do. Paul Jarley:                         And it might empower people to step forward and question things. Even when it turns out their wrong. Merrell Bailey:                  How would you be able to train a teller to say it's okay to tell a client no and we will back you up and you won't lose your job and you won't lose your health insurance and your... Paul Jarley:                         Even if you're wrong? Merrell Bailey:                  Even if you're wrong. Paul Jarley:                         Right. Paul Jarley:                         Behavioral ethics holds the promise of helping companies do the right thing. But will firms provide faculty with the access necessary to help them solve their deepest problems? Or, will they just keep them locked up in the closet? Paul Jarley:                         This show is all about separating hype from fundamental change. I'm Paul Jarley, Dean of the College of Business here at UCF. I've got lots of questions. To get answers, I'm talking to people with interesting insights into the future of business. Have you ever wondered, "Is This Really a Thing?" Paul Jarley:                         On to our show. Paul Jarley:                         This podcast is a little different. It was done over drinks and hors d'oeuvres before the Colleges' Deans' Advisory Board Meeting in September. We brought together five people with a common interest in ethics, had a conversation, and edited it down to what you're about to hear. Our guests were: Paul Jarley:                         Merrell Bailey. Merle is a four-time alumnus of the College. She's on our Deans' Advisory Board and has degrees in Accounting and Law. Two fields with extensive codes of ethics. Paul Jarley:                         Scott Keith is Regional President for BB&T in North and Central Florida. BB&T sponsors both an ethics class in the College as well as the faculty member who teaches that course, Marshall Schminke. Marshall is the BB&T Professor of Business Ethics. He joined us for the evening via Skype because he was speaking at a conference in East France. Paul Jarley:                         They're joined by Rob Folger. Rob is considered the Father of Behavioral Ethics. He sits in an endowed position that was funded by our last guest. Paul Jarley:                         Stan Horton. We caught up with Stan a couple of weeks after the event and added his insights into the conversation. Stan is an alum of the College and the President and CEO of Boardwalk Pipeline Partners. Stan was the only member of Enron's top management team that was not indicted in the Enron scandal. He closed Enron. It is not a stretch to say that the biggest corporate ethical breach of the last century started a chain of events that led to a whole new way to study ...

Featured Guests: Cindy Barth - Editor, Orlando Business Journal Grant Heston - Chief of Staff and Vice President for Communications & Marketing, UCF Rick Brunson - Associate Instructor, UCF Nicholson School of Communication & Media Episode Transcription:   Paul Jarley:                         It makes you believe there's no such thing as truth. Grant Heston:                   There's a lot of things labeled fake news that people just don't like. Paul Jarley:                         It's a popular Halloween costume. Rick Brunson:                    There are companies selling fake news costumes. You can dress up in a fake news ... It's plastered with newspaper pages and it has red fake across the front ... Yeah. $54.95 online. Paul Jarley:                         And combined with data analytics, it can be, well, clickalicious. Cindy Barth:                       There are certain things that we know all we have to do is put these keywords in a headline, and we're going to have what we call a clickalicious day because everybody in town is going to be going, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang on that story. We know that. Rick Brunson:                    Where, oh where have you gone, Walter Cronkite? Walter Cronkite:              That's the way it is. Friday, March 6th 1981. Paul Jarley:                         This show is all about separating hype from fundamental change. I'm Paul Jarley, Dean of the College of Business here at UCF. I've got lots of questions. To get answers, I'm talking to people with interesting insights into the future of business. Have you ever wondered, is this really a thing? Onto our show. Paul Jarley:                         Let's talk a little bit about how the world is changing in really broad strokes. When we were hunter gatherers and we started to plant crops, land was the most valuable thing and the people who were the richest and the most powerful owned the most land. And then machines were invented, and the Industrial Revolution happened and market economies occurred. In that, who owned the most machines became the most powerful people. Today, the most valuable asset is information. It's data. And the most powerful people in the future are going to be the people who control the most data, and they can use that data either to help inform you or they can manipulate you with that data. Paul Jarley:                         This gets us to the topic of fake news and whether fake news is really a thing or not. Is this something that 10 years from now we'll kind of laugh about and move on from, or will it be a part of our daily lives? And if it is, how do we determine what's fake from what's real out there? That's certainly something that my students need to know how to do, or we're all doomed. So, I brought together a panel of experts to talk a little bit about fake news, what it is, and whether it's really a thing or not. So I'm going to allow my guests to kind of introduce themselves. I'll start with Grant. Grant Heston:                   Sure. Thank you, Paul. I'm Grant Heston. I'm our Vice President for Communications in Marketing and Chief of Staff at the University of Central Florida. I got my undergraduate degree in journalism from a university about 90 minutes north of here, a little bit smaller than us. Football team is not quite as good. And so I live and breath with this every single day. Cindy Barth:                       Hi, I'm Cindy Barth. I'm Editor of Orlando Business Journal. I am a UCF graduate. My degree is in journalism with a minor in political science. Rick Brunson:                    Morning, everybody. My name is Rick Brunson and I'm an Associate Instructor of Journalism at the University of Central Florida where I'm also a proud alum. Got my degree there in 1984 and became a reporter and editor for the next 30 years and have been really privileged to return to the university where I learned about journalism and I teach it t...

Featured Guests: Kelly Dowling - Assistant Dean for Advancement, Stony Brook University College of Engineering and Applied Science Ken Bradley - Former Winter Park Mayor Ron Piccolo - Chair, UCF Department of Management Mark Dickie - Professor of Economics Jonathan Hasford - Assistant Professor of Marketing Carolyn Massiah - Associate Chair, Department of Marketing & Associate Lecturer, Marketing Episode Transcription:   Paul Jarley:                       Green Acres was a popular TV show when I was a kid. Simple plot line. Wall Street attorney forces socialite wife to give up New York and move to the farm. Cultures class, chaos ensues, but now it seems the tables have turned. Chickens are leaving farms in favor of urban backyards. Some inner city chickens even have Facebook pages. What's going on here? Are backyard chickens a thing? If so, why, and more importantly how can we stop them? This show is all about separating hype from fundamental change. I'm Paul Jarley, dean of the College of Business here at UCF. I've got lots of questions. To get answers, I'm talking to people with interesting insights into the future of business. Have you ever wondered, is this really a thing? Onto our show. Paul Jarley:                       My wife and I lead complicated lives. Careers and homes in two different states, five children spread across four time zones, our club's soccer schedule that takes Suzanne and sometimes meets towns far and wide, my work related travel, and our love of experiencing new places. Honestly, there are days I'm not sure where I am when I first wake up. One morning a few years ago, I was home in Lexington when I heard this. Suzanne was raised on a farm, but I was pretty sure we weren't at her parents' place. When she woke, I asked her about hearing that rooster crowing. She smiled and told me that the neighbors have installed a chicken coop, and that we were getting farm fresh eggs as part of the deal. "Much healthier and better tasting than store bought eggs," she stated with authority. Everybody knows eggs come in two rows in nice little cartons that sell for a few bucks at the grocery store. If you want to go crazy, you can buy the free range chicken variety, pay a dollar more, feel morally superior, and cook an extra one because they're puny. Paul Jarley:                       No one in their right mind believes it makes any economic sense to raise chickens at home. Besides, they're dirty, smelly creatures. There's a reason most of us stay away from the harsh realities of the food chain. I cracked a few eggs, scrambled them, and took a few bites. Different, not obviously better, I thought. Not a thing. Just a few hippies. This thing will be gone very soon. It turns out, I may have been wrong. Kelly Dowling:                 Hi, chick chicks. Paul Jarley:                       This whole chicken in the backyard thing has got some legs. The government has even released a series of studies on it. The best data on chicken migration to the cities comes from a 2013 study by the US Department of Agriculture. They looked at urban chicken issues in LA, Miami, Denver, and New York City. A few takeaways. More than half a percent of single family homes in these urban areas have backyard chickens. That's a lot of chicken. Second, overall more than 40% of people in these cities were in favor of allowing chickens in their communities. That's a lot of chicken support, and third, nearly 4% of households without chickens said they plan to have them in the next five years. Now, lots of people tell you they intend to do something and never follow through, but let's take that last nugget as evidence that urban chickens are on the rise. The USDA did. To understand why people do this, I wanted to get into the mind of an urban chicken owner. Someone who is harboring those dirty birds. Kelly Dowling:                 Really, I think of it as the pet that makes you breakfast.

Featured Guests: Jesse Wolfe - Founder / President, O'Dang Hummus Cameron Ford - Director, UCF Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership Michael Pape - Dr. Phillips Entrepreneur in Residence; Lecturer, Management Donna Mackenzie - Executive Director, StarterStudio Carol Ann Dykes Logue - Site Manager, UCF Business Incubator Episode Transcription:   Voice:                                "If you build it, he will come." Terence Mann:                "He will come, Ray. He will most definitely come." Paul Jarley:                       That's my favorite line from Field of Dreams. But, what if you can't build it? Jesse Wolfe:                     It came out to a $700,000, almost a million dollar, order. And they needed them to be about $10 a cart and I could not figure out how to get them below $25 a cart. Paul Jarley:                       Or, what if they don't come? Cameron Ford:                The Google Glass, people started using it out in public and stuff like that, and quickly were scorned as being what were described as Glass-holes. My understanding is they pulled from the market. Paul Jarley:                       Lean start up offers a different approach, but is it really a thing? Or, is it just academics hyping the scientific method? Paul Jarley:                       This show is all about separating hype from fundamental change. I'm Paul Jarley, Dean of the College of Business here at UCF. I've got lots of questions. To get answers, I'm talking to people with interesting insights into the future of business. Have you ever wondered, is this really a thing? Onto our show. Paul Jarley:                       This is how significant businesses started back in the day. Michael Pape:                 What we were, I'll just say, required to do as an entrepreneur with VCs with trying to get, maybe, economic development funds. Paul Jarley:                       Yup. Michael Pape:                 And this was in the biotech space. Paul Jarley:                       That's Dr. Michael Pape, Professor of Practice here in the College of Business, and Director of our UpStarts program. Michael Pape:                 So it was a tech-oriented business that I've been involved in, was write the business plan, and I have sat down, myself and with my teams, of writing the 40 to 60 page business plan. The fat startup, if I may define it that way, had you do that. Venture capitalists would request it, and they would want to make sure that you saw the plan from beginning to end. Paul Jarley:                       Then a funny thing happened starting in the early 1990s. Universities started to develop entrepreneurship programs. They did this partly to serve their economic development missions, partly because donors loved to give money to this cause and partly because more and more students became interested in entrepreneurship as a career path. Paul Jarley:                       In the early 1990s, ideals spun out of Stanford, with an emphasis on design thinking. Another decade passed and Berkeley started developing what has come to be known as lean start up. It had a coming out party in 2011, with the publication of Eric Riles book by the same name. But, are universities and business schools really the place to launch business startups? Paul Jarley:                       I had my doubts. We excel at getting rule followers great jobs in companies who are looking for functional talent. We really aren't geared up to help people who want to color outside the lines, pursue their crazy dreams, even when people say they're wrong. That said, a quarter of my students say they want to start a business, and students seem to love the lean startup methodology. Cameron Ford, Director of our Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, has a pretty obvious reason why. Cameron Ford:                Our students love the lean approach because, of course, they don't have any resources. So-

Featured Guests: Erik Kohler - The "Voice" of UCF Football Carolyn Massiah - Associate Chair, Department of Marketing & Associate Lecturer, Marketing Yael Zemack-Rugar - Assistant Professor of Marketing Nick Riggle - Philosopher, Author of On Being Awesome: A Unified Theory of How Not to Suck Episode Transcription:   Paul Jarley:                         Today's biggest viral sensation isn't a cat playing a piano or the Annoying Orange. It's an 18 year UCF college student staring at a camera. Seriously, can this really be a thing? This show is all about separating hype from fundamental change. I'm Paul Jarley, Dean of the College of Business here at UCF. I've got lots of questions. To get answers, I'm talking to people with interesting insights into the future of business. Have you ever wondered, is this really a thing? Onto our show. Paul Jarley:                         So how can a college freshman staring blankly into space get more likes on social media than the UCF national championship football team? Erik Kohler is the stadium voice of UCF football. Erik Kohler:                        Well, what's funny is, I'm up there in the production box of the sights and sounds of the stadium, and we go through the camera shots like we're doing like a fan of the game or marketing promotions and such. And we came across the crazy students section and everyone was going crazy and all of a sudden, the camera caught Anthony Allan, that just had this dead stare face. I think his nickname is Frozen Face. And the camera caught it and I could hear our camera guy says, hey, go back to that kid. And sure enough everybody started looking at video board, everybody just became enamored that he didn't blink, it was just kind of like a blank face, or a frozen face, I should say, and then it took off like wildfire. Paul Jarley:                         This didn't stop at the first game. It continued last week. Erik Kohler:                        We had it, where there was cutouts of his face, right. The fans were moving it and then the TV camera perfectly zoomed through all those faces that were fake, or the fat heads and there was real Anthony right in the middle, and that was hilarious. Paul Jarley:                         Marissa, one of our UCF College of Business ambassadors was in the stands at the time. Marissa:                               I think I definitely thought creepy at first. But because everybody started laughing, then it became more funny. His social media went a little bit viral, he got a ton of followers from that. So ... Paul Jarley:                         I was at the game last week, it was awesome, to understand what happened, I went to Nick Riggle. How are you doing my friend? Nick Riggle:                        I'm great. I'm great. Paul Jarley:                         Nick holds a PhD in philosophy from NYU. He was our guest speaker at Welcome to the Majors a couple of years ago, and he's written a book called, On Being Awesome: A Unified Theory of How Not to Suck. Nick and I sat down to talk about social openings. Nick Riggle:                        A social opening is an opportunity, it's a kind of .... It happens when an individual expresses him or herself in a way that gets other people to express themselves, often by like breaking the norms or breaking out of your social roles or doing what's unexpected or surprising. Paul Jarley:                         Is our staring man, is that a social opening? Nick Riggle:                        And so I think the staring guy actually does this, and I think it's brilliant. But what's special about this one is that it seems to me to be a social opening between the audience member and the cameraman, and maybe the producers as well. But it's one that is so weird and fun that it resonates throughout the rest of the crowd. And so they're kind of engaging at one remove. Paul Jarley:                         A philosopher ...

Featured Guests: Libby Mustaine - Professor of Sociology Chris Leo - Lecturer, Integrated Business Bill Steiger - Associate Instructor of Marketing; Instructor & Coordinator, Professional Selling Program Bob Danna - Retired Managing Director, Deloitte Episode Transcription: Paul Jarley:                         Some say they're the result of failed parenting strategies. Others say they're addicted to their phones, narcissistic, and entitled. The Western Michigan Whitecaps celebrated them by giving the first thousand people to come watch the team's baseball game a participation trophy. Whitecaps Fan:                 Oh, you know, we just really want a participation trophy. Whitecaps Fan 2:             Yeah. Whitecaps Fan:                 It's been a long week of hard work and- Whitecaps Fan 2:             We really earned it. Whitecaps Fan:                 I feel like we really deserve something. Paul Jarley:                         They job hop, have no loyalty, and want to have an impact, yet their greatest invention just might be selfie. Consultants everywhere just can't stop talking about them. Millennials want you to think they're special, but maybe, just maybe, they're just like the rest of us. Paul Jarley:                         This show is all about separating hype from fundamental change. I'm Paul Jarley, Dean of the College of Business here at UCF. I've got lots of questions. To get answers, I'm talking to people with interesting insights into the future of business. Have you ever wondered, "Is this really a thing?" On to our show. Paul Jarley:                         Like all data-driven decision makers, I'm sensitive to the differences in my staff's dispositions when assigning them tasks. A few examples. Tiffany is an Aries like me. Anyone that knows Tiff recognizes that she needs to be in a leadership position to satisfy her need for control. Tiffany Hughes:                I believe I'm tough. I believe I can negotiate extremely well. Paul Jarley:                         But if Tiff is an Aries, she's also cold-hearted, reckless, and ruthless. Tiffany Hughes:                Oh, my heavens, no. I hope not. Paul Jarley:                         And then there's the Aries' legendary ability to deliver bad news. Tiffany Hughes:                Every day I try to look for the sunshine. Paul Jarley:                         Yeah, not her. My Associate Dean of Learning, Foard Jones, is a Libra. Like all Libras, he's extremely intellectual and needs a job that is mentally stimulating. Libras are excellent networkers and take a look at every aspect of the job before completing it. But if Foard's a Libra, that should also mean he's resentful, overindulgent, spiteful, indecisive, and gullible. Foard Jones:                      At times, but most of the times, no. [laughs] Paul Jarley:                         That doesn't sound like Foard. Libras sound more like Catbert, the evil HR manager from Gilbert. Good thing I took Foard out of that role. That sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? No one in their right mind would assign people jobs based on their astrological sign. I don't know a single reputable management consultant that argues we need to tailor our company HR policies and people's roles to their birth month. But I do know a ton that say we should vary these same policies based on people's birth year. Paul Jarley:                         They say things like this. Bob Danna:                         One of the things that we've teased out is that diversity and flexibility are the key to loyalty. The younger workers, the younger of the millennials feel that they are unprepared for industry 4.0. Paul Jarley:                         Bob Danna sits on my Dean's Advisory Board. He's a retired managing director at Deloitte. Bob has spent much of his career studying people in the workplace. We'll hear much more from him a bit later.

Featured Guests: Greg Trompeter - Director, Kenneth G. Dixon School of Accounting Melanie Fernandez - Partner, BDO Paul Gregg - Assistant Chair, Finance Executive in Residence, Dept. of Finance; CFO, Rini Technologies, Inc. Jim Adamczyk - Senior Executive VP / CLO, FAIRWINDS Credit Union Mike Johnson - Dean, UCF College of Sciences Episode Transcription:   Paul Jarley:                         This is a story of a man who was ahead of his time. Some say that he had the most important idea of the last 500 years. He may very well have helped to invent the future. He most certainly understood the role trust plays in our modern economy. And he was of all things, a mild mannered accounting professor. Paul Jarley:                         This show is all about separating hype from fundamental change. I'm Paul Jarley, Dean of the College of Business here at UCF. I've got lots of questions. To get answers, I'm talking to people with interesting insights into the future of business. Have you ever wondered, "Is this really a thing?". On to our show. [music]` Paul Jarley:                         A few months ago, I received an email from Mike Johnson. Mike is Dean of the College of Sciences and more importantly, my drinking buddy. The subject line read, Innovations in Accounting. Who knew? I opened the email and clicked on the link to an article entitled, "Why Everyone Missed the Most Important Invention of the Last 500 Years". I was skimming the article when Greg Trompeter walked into my office. Greg is the director of the Dixon School of Accounting, and so I turned to him and said, "Hey Greg, have you ever heard of triple entry bookkeeping?" Greg Trompeter:              (laughs). Triple entry bookkeeping. Paul Jarley:                         Indeed he had. Greg Trompeter:              It's an idea that came up, maybe in the mid to late 1970s. There was a professor at Carnegie Mellon. His name is Yuji Ijiri and he came up with a notion that for four or five hundred years people had been using double entry bookkeeping as if it were perfection itself. He said, "Well, maybe you could make it better". Paul Jarley:                         Okay, let's stop right there. I realize a podcast in accounting theory is a bold move. But Dr. Ijiri was quite the dude. His obituary notes he was interested in things like the relationship between accounting, quantum physics, and quantum computing. How many people do you think are trying to connect those dots? He didn't strike me as the kind of guy who would waste his time on frivolous pursuits. Yuji Ijiri:                               Bookkeeping evolved from single entry, which just recorded what happened, to a double entry, where what happened has to be explained by reasoning. Paul Jarley:                         Dr. Ijiri might be dead, but in the miracle of today's modern technology, he left behind a YouTube video explaining his ideas around triple entry bookkeeping. Yuji Ijiri:                               I get attracted by three. Everything three is very interesting and much more complex than two. And what the triple entry might look like. Paul Jarley:                         He challenged a group of Ph.D. students to figure this out. 10 years lapsed, when he realized... Yuji Ijiri:                               Nobody is doing anything about it. (laughs). Paul Jarley:                         So he decided to take matters into his own hands. Yuji wrote two books on the subject. The second of which... Yuji Ijiri:                               bases on the calculus of taking a type of derivative of existing accounting and come up with a new dimension and then create the double entry at that level. I think it has a lot of applications... Paul Jarley:                         I know that seems esoteric, but Dr. Ijiri's ideas might just rock your world. As Greg explains, changes in accounting facilitated changes in markets and signific...

Featured Guests: Danny White - UCF Athletic Director Richard Lapchick - Director, DeVos Sports Business Management Program Ben Noel - Executive Director, Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy Tony Schiller - Executive Vice President and Partner, Paragon Marketing Group Abiel Payano - President, UCF Gaming Knights Episode Transcription:   Paul Jarley: You remember that, right? Well, video games have come a long way since then. It’s no longer just guys playing in their moms’ basements. Now teams play in their own arenas. They’re ranked in coach’s polls, have television contracts and even their own sneakers. 380 million people say they are fans. The China championship sold 80,000 tickets in one minute. Your son or daughter likely has a favorite team. Danny White and Dale Whittaker would do well to help the UCF Gaming Knights be part of this global phenomenon. The college experience is changing my friends, welcome to e-sports. This show is all about separating hype from fundamental change. I’m Paul Jarley, dean of the College of Business here at UCF. I’ve got lots of questions. To get answers, I’m talking to people with interesting insights into to the future of business. Have you ever wondered, is this really a thing? Onto our show… Danny White: We feel strongly that we have every right to claim the national championship and that’s why we’re doing it. Shaquem Griffin: You know, the only things we can do is win games and we won all of them. If you want to put one more in front of us, we’ll probably win that one too. Jarley: Yes, we’re the self-proclaimed national champions of college football. And unless you’ve in a closet for the last six months, you know Shaquem Griffin’s story. It was a great year to be a UCF Knight. But I sometimes wonder if college football isn’t really the last war. Maybe the next war is e-sports. E-sports? Listen in. No that’s not a crowd reacting to a Justin Upton homer. It’s Justin Wong making an epic comeback in a game of Street Fighter in 2004. Ask any 16-year-old boy about e-sports, and whether UCF should field a team, and you get an answer like this. Spencer: It’s a great idea, honestly, I’d watch it. Jarley: Trust me that’s Spencer being excited. He’s a man of few words and in fairness to him, I was interrupting his game of Fortnite, so I kept my interrogation short. Jarley Interviewing: And how much would you pay to go to an event? Spencer: However much it would take I guess, how much they would charge. Jarley: I needed to get up to speed on this whole e-sports thing. So I went to visit Ben Noel. Ben is a former EA Sports executive and currently heads up UCF’s Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy. That’s our nationally renowned video gaming program in Downtown Orlando. Jarley Interviewing: So Ben, I know you’ve been in the gaming industry for quite a while. What is e-sports? Noel: Well e-sports is short for electronic sports and it was basically, you’re playing competitive gaming. Jarley: Calling video games sports? Now I know what you’re thinking, “that’s kind of a stretch.” But Ben says that the level of skill and teamwork actually makes the two kind of similar. Noel: It’s usually team based and it’s online and it’s usually played globally. And it never really became big until we had the internet that could allow for such things. Jarley: Big is an understatement Schiller: Globally there’s over 380 million that self-identify as e-sport fans. Jarley: Listen to Tony Schiller, Executive Vice President and Partner at Paragon Marketing Group Schiller: We help big brands like Gatorade, PNC Bank, and Yokohama Tires and many, many more. We help big banks engage with their target audience and it’s all about the affinity that the target audience has. It’s mind blowing. You know, there are events at the United Center of Chicago, at Madison Square Garden in New York, the Staples Center in Los Angeles that go on sale,

Featured Guests: Stefanie Hill - Career Coach, UCF College of Business Office of Professional Development Lina Pabon - Campus Talent Acquisition Business Partner, ADP "Ellen" - Student "Casper" - Student Vera - Robot Interviewer Episode Transcription:   Paul Jarley:                         Russian hackers aren't just messing with our elections, they're disrupting the job application process, too. Companies like IKEA and Pepsi are hoping artificial intelligence will help cut hiring costs, but all this new technology may just be leading to more incivility in the job market. Prepare to be ghosted, my friends. Paul Jarley:                         This show is all about separating hype from fundamental change. I'm Paul Jarley, dean of the College of Business here at UCF. I've got lots of questions. To get answers, I'm talking to people with interesting insights into the future of business. Have you ever wondered, "Is this really a thing?" On to our show. Paul Jarley:                         To a graduating senior, the job market can be a scary place. If you think a 4% unemployment rate has eased these concerns, think again. Just pray that this horror story doesn't happen to you. “Ellen”:                                I got three interviews. I did all of them and I got called back for one from a local firm. I went to the second interview. They told me that, it was maybe on a Monday, and they told me they would reach out to me again by Friday. They even gave me the employment paperwork, and then they never reached out to me ever again. Paul Jarley:                         Let's just call her "Ellen." But an incident like this? “Ellen”:                                Nothing. Just completely ghosted me. Paul Jarley:                         It's a bit of shock to the ego. “Ellen”:                                I figured that if they didn't want me, they would at least tell me they didn't want me. Paul Jarley:                         What has that experience done to you? “Ellen”:                                It was really frustrating because I put a lot into preparing for it. I was really excited about it. It's discouraging. Paul Jarley:                         Discouraging, but hardly new. Stefanie Hill:                     I think with technology, there are so many platforms now and, depending on the business, you're not paying for every single platform. Paul Jarley:                         That's Stefanie Hill, a Career Coach in our Office of Professional Development. She's explaining how greater use of technology in the applicant screening process is leading to more ghosting by employers. Stefanie Hill:                     An applicant tracking system is what employers use to track all of the applicants that come through and apply on their website. If you're using that ATS, that's great, but you have to drive traffic to you website, which a lot of employers don't pay for extra marketing to do that. You're gonna go on CareerBuilder, you're gonna go on Indeed. If your organization doesn't shell out thousands of dollars to pay for these different platforms, then they're not communicating with your ATS. In that instance, you're going on three different platforms. You would have to send rejection letters to all three different platforms, depending on who applied on which, and a lot of times with all of those applicants it's hard for employers and recruiters, especially, to keep track of all of that Paul Jarley:                         It's just too much work to contact everybody. Stefanie Hill:                     I believe so. I also think it depends on the means of how you're communicating with somebody. Paul Jarley:                         Sometimes when the employer calls, no one's home. Given the pressures of time, the employer just moves on. Stefanie Hill:                     If you're doing that through a phone call or voicemail,

Featured Guests: Sean Snaith - Director, UCF Institute for Economic Competitiveness Honghui Chen - Director, Master of Science (M.S.) FinTech Initiative at UCF Jim Balaschak - Principal, Deanja, LLC Mike O'Donnell - Executive Director, UCF Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship Alexander Golding - Founder and CEO, HelpedHope; Bitcoin Investor David Metcalf - Senior Researcher and Director, Mixed Emerging Technology Integration Lab (METIL), Institute for Simulation & Training Jim Adamczyk - Senior Executive VP / CLO, Fairwinds Credit Union Episode Transcription:   Paul Jarley:                         This episode has bank robbers, bitcoin, blockchain, and bacon. Maybe those are the four Bs of Fintech? As it turns out, not all of them are a thing. Paul Jarley:                         This show is all about separating hype from fundamental change. I'm Paul Jarley, dean of the College of Business here at UCF. I've got lots of questions. To get answers, I'm talking to people with interesting insights into the future of business. Have you ever wondered, "Is this really a thing?" Onto our show. Paul Jarley:                         I have a murky past. I paid my way through graduate school by teaching macro and micro economics to inmates in a federal penitentiary. How I got that gig is a story for another day. Suffice to say, it's not easy to get into a facility like that. Most of my students were drug dealers, counterfeiters, or tax evaders. My best student was a bank robber. Paul Jarley:                         When I first heard of bitcoin and its alleged underworld origins I thought, "Yeah. Government's gonna shut that down right away. It's not going to be a thing." Some South American countries like Bolivia and Ecuador have shut down bitcoin; many countries in the Muslim world have too. Paul Jarley:                         Countries like China have made it difficult to trade, others like India and Canada have safeguards that keep it out of its banking system. But, here in the United States bitcoin is legal. Why? To answer that question I went to my resident hater of all government regulation. Paul Jarley:                         Well, that's a little harsh. He's the director of the UCF Institute of Economic Competitiveness, Dr. Sean Snaith. Paul Jarley:                         Hey, Sean. Got a couple of questions for you. Sean Snaith:                       All right. Paul Jarley:                         Sean is one of the most recognized people at UCF and his office is just down the hall from mine. Paul Jarley:                         Why are cryptocurrencies like bitcoin legal? Doesn't government have a monopoly on money production? Sean Snaith:                       They do. The thing is, with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies they really haven't infringed greatly on the role of money as the medium of exchange that is official government money. Paul Jarley:                         It's not really legal tender is what you're telling me? Sean Snaith:                       No. I can't be forced to accept bitcoin in payment. Now, if I was willing to, then we do see transactions where bitcoins functioning as the medium of exchange. But, it's not widespread and that's why I think the government is not sort of clamping down on bitcoin in a forceful way. Sean Snaith:                       It's not taking revenue away from the government that the government accumulates by being able to create money, which is a significant amount. Paul Jarley:                         But, what about using bitcoin on a day-to-day basis? Honghui Chen:                  From the time it started, initiated to it really is completely verified is an hour of wait time. Paul Jarley:                         That's Honghui Chen, UCF finance professor and leader of our emerging Fintech program. Hong is explaining that your typical bitcoin transaction takes about an hour to process; t...

"Is This Really a Thing?" is an all new podcast created and hosted by Paul Jarley, dean of the College of Business at the University of Central Florida. With the help of local experts, enthusiasts and all-around interesting people, Paul takes a look at up-and-coming concepts and ideas that have the potential to reshape the business landscape. How do you separate fly-by-night management tactics or money pits from legitimate innovations? What will students need to learn about to be successful over the next decade? Is Bitcoin a thing? How about eSports? Paul decided to chase down the answers to these questions that keep him up at night and pose the question... Is This Really a Thing? Coming to your favorite podcast app in mid-September.