Dr Reimann: Today we have 5 members of the board who are here for a board meeting but they’ve enjoyed and the students have enjoyed an open forum that allows the students to ask questions and get some sense of career development, important trends in business, issues in business and for those of you who are entering the business world; the last couple of years have been very exciting. The so called issues of globalization of business has been prominent, not only throughout the business world, but throughout the presidential campaign. The issue of threats to business, business continuity is a major issue. And of course, outsourcing: those aspects of globalization; business ethics; all of these issues have been in the news throughout the last several years and have been very controversial. I’m confused about a lot of it and I would expect that just about everyone here would be. So today we thought that we would focus on those issues and give people with very different backgrounds the opportunity to comment on it and also to phrase these questions as you might from the way you’ve seen it. I’m going to ask each of the members of the board to give a little thumbnail sketch about themselves the first time they speak. But, with us today David Jones from Seimens Electric in Johnson City: a new member of the board, Marie Williams, a veteran and retired president of the Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence, Jack Swain from Hewlett Packard, Jean Kenny from Proctor and Gamble also a new member of the board and Bill Neussbaum who works for the University of Tennessee Institute for Public Service in the manufacturing extension partnership area. So we have, as you can see from this, an array of backgrounds, very different and quite interesting careers. So, on that note I will turn the forum over to students who want to raise questions of the board members. And again, I’ll ask the board members the first time they speak to give a little thumbnail sketch about their career so you can see who they are and where they’re coming from. Any Questions?
Question: Hi, I’m Casey Pennycuff and my question deals with new global issues like were mentioned earlier. As students preparing to enter the marketplace how can we best prepare ourselves to handle these issues and take advantage of them? And what exactly would be outsourcing?
Dr. Reimann: OK. Jean would you like to take a crack at that? We’ll start you off on the rookie of the year campaign. A little on your background first Jean; a very brief sketch.
Answer: I work for Proctor and Gamble. I’m currently in our product supply organization which for P&G encompasses everything from buying materials all the way through to delivery to the customer, which in our case would typically be a grocery store or a drugstore or a store like Wal-Mart. Background on my career: I’ve been at P&G 27 years. I’ve done a bunch of different things; about 13 years in total quality management; some time in engineering; some time in manufacturing and most recently in purchasing. I have an engineering degree and I also have a law degree. OK. How to prepare yourself for the global world. I think, from an education standpoint, is to make sure you develop strong skills. Get the very best education that you can. Develop strong skills. Have an attitude toward continual learning because what you learn today is not going to necessarily be just what you need even in 2, 3, 4 or 5 years. So, have a real attitude about continual learning and I think a real focus on innovation, on being creative. How can I do what’s done today in a better way; whatever it is: coming up with new ideas, new product ideas or new methodologies or new processed for doing things but have a real commitment to continual learning and to being innovative.