Minutes 04/16/12

Prepared by: Remington Drake

Present: Carmen, Jacqueline, Brooke, Jordan, Leah, Casey, Remington, Robert

Robert presented minutes from last class.


Topic
Suzanne gave us background on what formal reports are, and how they should be used. They are typically written documents or verbal statements that are used in business situations. There are multiple uses for formal reports:

• Proposal
• Useful for offering a suggestion to solve a problem
• Two types:
• Internal
• Often a persuasive pitch
• Example: bringing in a speaker
• External
• Solicited proposal
• Someone asks for you to send them a proposal
• RFP: Request for Proposal
• Example: Boeing would like to buy airplane parts you make
• Unsolicited proposal
• You propose something the party did not ask for
• Example: sales pitch
• Feasibility report:
• It demonstrates how successful a project may be
• Usually more technical than other types of reports
• Can be a document, video or oral presentation
• Must present evidence for the practicality of a project within the organization
• Examples: manufacturing a new product, creating a new division
• Progress report:
• It provides a picture of the current state of a project or venture
• Example: how many units have been made out of a quota
• Travel report:
• It provides information about the activities of traveling employees
• Useful for monitoring productivity or disseminating information the traveler needs or has learned
• Example: business trip to convention in New York

Suzanne then provided the general format for a formal report:

• Intro
• Body
• It will often have headers for all major points
• Recommendations
• Consequences/Implications
• Conclusion

The formal report also contains elements called the front matter and the back matter:

• Front matter:
• Title page
• Abstract
• Table of contents
• List of figures
• Back matter:
• Bibliography
• Appendix
• Glossary

Remember, the report should state the intended purpose, the scope of the issue, the methods of finding information or conducting the plan, and the actual findings/recommendations. These are critical if you want to have an effective message.


Suzanne then introduced us to the concept of an executive summary, which is an encapsulated version of a formal report. It is typically no more than 10% of the actual report, and it does not have additional information.


Exercise
We listened to a podcast on the Note-taker, a device for legally blind students. The class took notes on an executive summary sheet provided by Suzanne. Afterwards, we watched a video on the product. Using the information we recorded on our worksheets, we came up in front of the class to construct a brief summary similar to what an executive summary would have.


The main points we noted:

• Introduction:
• We described the invention and its purpose
• Listed the core goals
• Mentioned it was invented by David Hayden, and we included his affiliations and accomplishments
• Body
• Described the current situation and possible alternatives to the product
• Made mention of all their downsides, showing the need for the proposed product
• Briefly described the unique benefits of the Note-taker
• Mentioned technicalities of the Note-taker
• Included terms that would need to be defined
• Conclusion
• Described future opportunities for the product and its potential to access the market

Suzanne posted this document to the blog for reference


Assignment
We will write executive summaries on one of two investment funds belonging to Goldman Sachs:

• 10,000 Women Fund
• Invests and gives seed money to women internationally to start businesses
• 10,000 Businesses Fund
• Provides seed money to start businesses in distressed areas in the United States

Everything we need to know will be on the respective websites. Suzanne told us to treat the websites as formal reports, and that our information should summarize them. This assignment is due Wednesday, April 18th.

Minutes 3/26/12

Prepared by: Jacqueline Pfeiffer
Present: Carmen, Brooke, Leah, Casey, Jordan, Robert, Remington

Presentation:  Brooke presented the minutes from our last class.  Suzanne mentioned that Brooke did a really nice job of breaking up the different discussions/topics.

Topic: Oprah in St. Louis!  Oprah visited Sweetie Pie’s, which is located in the Grove, and the class watched a video of her visit.  We discussed Oprah’s influence over brands and mentioned that this was very good for Sweetie Pie’s brand.

  

Group Work:  The two branding groups met one final time to talk about concluding presentations.  Suzanne said that giving closure to a presentation is something that we all need to work on and something that is very important.  She said that it’s okay to use key works (In conclusion…), but you need to be graceful about the way you do it.

Presentations:  Both of the branding groups presented their proposals for improving Charlack’s image.  Robert, Leah, Jordan, and Casey changed Charlack’s name to “Hightop” and proposed splitting the city into a residential area on one side of the highway and a business district, complete with casinos and lodging, on the other.  Brooke, Carmen, Remington, and Jacqueline proposed rebranding Charlack by emphasizing its park, encouraging community gardens, and holding wellness events to improve community spirit.

Discussion: What do you do to prepare for an interview?  The class suggested a number of things including: researching the company and/or the interviewer, dressing appropriately, using breath mints, relaxing, smiling, arriving early, anticipating “classic” interview questions, and using a firm handshake.

Topic: First impressions.  Suzanne told us that first impressions are essential in interviews.  Often, superficial things, like appearance, are very important and the interviewer forms his opinions on these aspects almost immediately.  A person’s comfort with their knowledge about the company and the job they are applying for also plays a huge role in the interviewer’s opinion of them.  To go along with this, Suzanne mentioned the “fundamental attribution error,” which occurs when a person makes an assumption that leads to another assumption.  For example, if you saw someone wearing a motorcycle jacket, you might also assume that they are a risk taker. 

Topic: Interview questions.  Today, the trend for interviewers is to use open-ended questions.  For example: “tell me about a time when you had to multitask, how did you prioritize your work?”  These questions allow them to determine personality traits, but aren’t a great indicator of a person’s future success in a company.   To prepare for these types of questions, Suzanne mentioned using the “star method,” which you use by thinking of a situation, task, your action, and the result.  Each should be very specific and you should be able to article them in a sentence or two. Another type of interview is the structural interview, which asks very specific questions and therefore is a better indicator of traits, but they are not common outside of large companies.  

Next class we will read an article that dispels a number of interview myths.  For Wednesday, everyone should have read the first part of Delivering Happiness and come prepared with five discussion questions on a piece of paper.

Minutes 3/7/2012

Minutes for Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Prepared by: Casey

Present: Carmen, Casey, Brooke, Robert, Jordan, Leah, Jacqueline

Suzanne announces a syllabus change that Robert posts on the blog. Class will no longer meet on 3/19 and in lieu the twitter press release assignment will be due, printed out, at the beginning of class on March 21.

Topic:

Press releases. Suzanne explains press releases are a part of business communication that has morphed over time. Formal press releases have been replaces by the use of social media which has changed their appearance, use, and distribution. Despite this change, press releases remain as a standard use of communication with a standard format for a standard purpose.

Standard Press Release Format:

-Headline

-Dateline (city in caps and date)

-Intro

-Body Paragraphs (short and tight paragraphs so hopefully journalists will take your verbatim and recast it)

-Boilerplate

-Close

-Contact Information (name. e-mail, phone, etc. for further information)

-3 hashtags (means no more information in the release)

Press release purpose to announce 1 thing an organization has done/plans to do to help journalists know about this certain event/breakthrough and help these journalists a) cover the newsworthy information and b) give them contact information for follow up. Sometimes press releases are called news releases.

Don’t issue press releases just because, goal is to create buzz for your organization in a positive way. The 1st go-to place to put your press release would be on your organization’s website. Example is Tom’s website. Go to webpage, clock blog and press, and then go to toms in the press to find posts where toms is showing up in the media.

Distributing paper press releases doesn’t happen anymore so now organizations are posting information to their site and if they want it to reach elsewhere they turn to social media.

Topic:

Assignment due March 21. Write 10 tweets based on Obama’s state of the union address. Convert the main subjects he covered in his speech.

A good tweet from Obama’s press secretary would be a coherent and scintillating short message. Themes from his speech include fighting for the middle class by changing the tax structure and creating manufacturing jobs.

Ex. Obama vows to fight for middle class by creating manufacturing jobs & keeping taxes low (maybe link to warren buffet’s policy).

Do not need to use hashtag but must write 10 tweets of 10 distinct ideas in 140 characters each.

Things to remember for a good press release tweet:

Still a press release, so no cute language like a tweet.

Real statistics good in tweet as number speak.

Put marker that it is a press release to give audience an indication there is more information behind this.

Remember the audience is the media.

Suzanne recommends having an outline (this doesn’t need to be submitted) about the subject and what you want to get across in each tweet.

Minutes 02/29/12

Minutes for Wednesday, Feburary 29th.

Prepared by: Remington Drake

Present: Carmen, Jacqueline, Brooke, Jordan, Leah, Casey, Remington, Robert

Jordan presented the minutes from Wednesday, the 12^th. Suzanne wished to emphasize a point Jordan mentioned, which was that we should refrain from using “however” at the beginning of a sentence. It will be something she looks for in our future assignments.

There was some confusion over the new minutes schedule. Suzanne said she would address it at some other time, so we would not take away from class time.

Topic

Everyone seemed to enjoy the presentation given by Chris. Suzanne compared him to an electrician, or some other individual devoted to a field that has become an integral part of our society. Electronic communication has become an important tool in the workplace, and people like Chris are committed to its growth and utility.

Discussion

Most everyone did well on the persuasive letter assignment. Suzanne noted our improvement in avoiding garbage and filler statements, but she felt we could improve upon our wordiness. Using wordy and redundant statements displays a lack of precision, and it only serves as a crutch to avoid refining one’s ideas. Suzanne will pay careful attention to precision in our midterm assignments.

Exercise

To help us develop an awareness of wordy statements, Suzanne asked each of us to come up with precise substitutions for redundant phrases. 

Examples include:

personal opinion
immediate vicinity
referring back
end result
continue on
first and foremost
hope and trust
each and every one of you
various and sundry
attractive in appearance
at this moment in time

Robert asked if there was a place for nuanced phrases, and Suzanne responded not to use them in workplace communication. While some wordiness is acceptable in academic writing, attempting to write nuanced phrases for workplace communication only dilutes meaning. Conciseness should be a priority.

Topic

Before we began to edit each other’s rough drafts, Suzanne addressed the tenets of good editing:

1. Conciseness:
• Cut out the wordiness
2. Clarity:
• Your writing should not dwell on obvious statements.
• Have a clear point to what you write, and work to express it.
• Don’t be vague; there is no place for ambiguity in workplace communication.
3. Grammar and punctuation:
• While our punctuation is good, we must improve our grammar.
4. Appropriateness to audience:
• The audience is our class, so write in a familiar tone.
• Be sure the topic is about you and not someone else.
• Use of first person is preferred.
5. Idea development:
• Show, don’t tell.
• Know your intent. Seek to write a blog post that is entertaining or enlightening, or one that shows a different facet of your personality.

Important points to remember:

• Each person has a voice that you cannot cut out. You can still make suggestions about how the audience receives the message, but keep the writer’s voice intact.
• If you’re going to correct grammar, be sure you know what you are doing. Uncertain advice doesn’t help.
• Use understandable proofreading marks.
• Don’t over-edit. You want to be helpful, not evil. Remember to give positive comments where they are deserved. 

Topic
The syllabus has the correct due dates for the midterm. Your blog entry must be posted no later than March 4^th, 11:59pm. You are to bring a printed copy to class March 5^th. Both the entry and the hard copy will count towards 50% of your midterm grade.

You will present your entry on March 5^th, and this will count toward the other 50% of your grade.

• It should be no longer than 8 minutes.
• You should avoid stammering, excessive use of notes, and bad comport.
• You are not restricted to what you posted, but stay on your topic. Your presentation should supplement your post.
• If you include a photo, video, hyperlink, or other type of media, you will receive extra credit. It livens the post.

Discussion

We received someone's rough draft to edit. After editing, we met with the writer to discuss corrections.

Minutes 2/22/12

Minutes Wednesday, February 12, 2012

Prepared by: Jordan Peters

Attendance: Jordan, Robert, Remington, Jacqueline, Casey, Brooke, Leah, Carmen

Robert began by presenting the minutes from Monday's class.

Topic:

Adjustment letters. We began by going over our responses to the Virgin Airlines complaint letter. Suzanne informed us about a few things that we neglected in our letters. Some of us did not respond to both issues at hand in the complaint letter, being the food as well as the entertainment (video screens). Also, many of us forgot to use a real handwritten signature to sign Richard Branson's name at the bottom of the letter. This should be beneath the "Sincerely," line and above a general signature block that includes at least his name and title. We also need to remember that there is no need to mess with the letter format. Indented paragraphs or block format are both appropriate, but still to the standard format. We also discussed how spaces between paragraphs is fine for 3-4 paragraphs, but if there are more than that do not include spaces, because it is more important to have a one page letter. Make sure to maintain visual balance and separate paragraphs for separate topics, even if this means having a one sentence paragraph. Extra credit points were awarded for those who used graphics, letter head, or just had well-thought out and well-worded letters. Suzanne handed our letters back to us at the end of class. 

Discussion:

We did one of our grammar activities to keep us constantly making sure that we use proper grammar in our writing. We started by assessing a sentence individually and then as a class we talked about the problems with the sentence that Suzanne gave us. There were a few important take aways from this exercise. One was that if a sentence uses the phrase "not only", then the phrase "but also"must follow it. Another phrasing correction is that you should use "different from" rather than "different than" (although this is acceptable when talking). Also, make sure that you spell words correctly, and spell them for your audience. The British style of writing a word such as rabbit (rabbitt), may not be appropriate if in the United States. The word "however" at the beginning of a sentence can be controversial. Many believe it is grammatically correct and if it is not followed immediately by a comma, then the meaning of a sentence can change. Sentences generally flow better when you stick this word in the middle of a sentence. 

Topic:

Blogs. Blogs have increasingly become a must have for all businesses. They can provide a good lens into an organization and can be rather insightful if used properly. Blogs are a great marketing tool, because they let people outside of your organization know about what you are up to. They are great because as an organization you get to control what information you put on them, so you can highlight the positive aspects of your organization. As a class we looked at a few blogs, namely, the St. Louis Symphony's, Kaldi's, Meds & Food For Kids, Patagonia, Ben's Blog as well as The Sartorialist. We gathered that blogs with pictures, music, and other engaging features are easier for a reader to digest. Also, the blogs that are more focused on connecting people to resources, sharing stories and experiences, or keeping its audience updated on projects that are of importance to them are ways to ensure a successful blog. It is important to not have too many distractions on a page and to keep entries rather short. 

We set out own guidelines for what makes a good blog entry. You should always make sure to know your audience and use a personal voice or perspective while writing. Having good, fluid, concise writing with an appropriate length for your audience is key. The entry needs to be visually appealing to your audience and make sure that the format helps guide length as well as comprehension of the subject matter. An entry should be easy to scan/skim through and there should also be good headlines, tags, and other identifiers on the post. Lastly, each entry should only have one topic.

Discussion:

We ended class with a few housekeeping notes and real life examples that apply to topics we have covered in the class. First Suzanne reminded us that we will have a speaker on Monday's class. We are to read 5-7 blog entries on Chris' blog. He will be discussing the most effective way to blog. We will also be discussing our midterm assignment on Monday. Also, Suzanne told us about how JPL, a company at Berkley, who started having meetings while standing up. They did this in order to have a more succinct agenda and shorten their meeting length, which was getting out of hand.

Minutes, 2/15/2012

Class Minutes: 15 February 2012

Prepared by: Leah Sutton

Present: Jacqueline, Carmen, Leah, Brooke, Casey, Jordan, Robert, Remington, and Suzanne

We began with Jacqueline reviewing the minutes from last week.

Suzanne then introduced our topic for today: letters of adjustment/apology. They are difficult to write because of their sensitivity. We began with an example from Kaldi’s about a bad experience a regular customer had with a manager, for which Suzanne felt compelled to issue an apology.

She shared some famous examples including Johnson & Johnson’s Tylenol incident in 1982. Tylenol was recalled by Johnson & Johnson and they issued a letter of warning along with paying for a national advertisement campaign warning people of the investigation. Though the case was never solved, it was concluded that the bottles had been tampered with and it is now recognized as a “safe brand.”

In contrast, BP Amoco did not do any of the above in dealing with the oil spill in 2010. They were not proactively sharing information, prompting outside investigation. The damage not only to the environment but to their brand is immeasurable.

We reviewed Suzanne's guidelines for apology letters, which instructs us to 1) acknowledge, 2) apologize, 3) appreciate, and 4) adjust ($$).

Suzanne read to us a famous “non-apology” from Netflix when they attempted to split their streaming services from their DVD company and received many customer complaints. CEO and Co-founder Reed Hastings was in fact ridiculed for this letter.

Finally we reviewed the assignment for Monday—Suzanne read us the letter of complaint to Richard Branson, the CEO of Virgin Airlines, to which we must write a response letter of apology. We began to work on these letters in class.

Minutes 2/13/12

Prepared by: Jacqueline Pfeiffer

Present: Carmen, Leah, Brooke, Remington, Robert, Casey, Jordan, Jacqueline

Presentation: Brooke presented the minutes from the previous class.

Topic:

Memos.  Suzanne finished grading the Howard Schulz response memos.  She said that they were very well done.  Everyone understood the concept and effectively applied it to their assigned division.  The only problem was poor grammar, mainly use of the passive voice and awkward sentences.  She told us to pay close attention to grammar in the future.  The memos were graded out of ten points.  Suzanne returned the graded memos at the end of class.

Topic:

Letters.  Suzanne told us to re-read tab 7 (beginning on page 184) in the BWC book.  She told us to pay close attention to the section about complaint letters because we will be working on these during our next class on Wednesday.

Presentations:

Historical Letters.  Everyone in the class presented their letter, including its historical context and significance.  Casey went first, reading a letter written by Gandhi to Hitler in the month before Germany’s invasion of Poland in an attempt to prevent war.  Jordan followed and presented the first part of Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail.  The letter was written during the height of the Civil Rights Movement and outlined King’s nonviolent methods of ending segregation.  The letter was a response to a statement made by clergymen stating that social injustice should be fought only in courts.   Robert read the second half of King’s letter and focused on its message, pointing out King’s concern for the inaction of both the middle class and churches.  Carmen read Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letter to a Young Poet, in which Rilke, a German poet, tells a young man to write about everyday things and write for himself.  Jacqueline then presented Abraham Lincoln’s Bixby Letter, a consolation letter addressing a mother who was initially believed to have lost five sons during the Civil War.  Next, Remington read an exchange between eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon and a newspaper editor concerning the existence of Santa Claus.  The editor responded by saying the most significant things in life, like love, aren’t tangible. Brooke presented Einstein’s 1939 letter to FDR, which urged the United States to focus on uranium development.  Leah concluded the presentations and spoke about a letter from the Tuskegee Health Department, concerning the Tuskegee syphilis experiment, which studied the progression of the disease in poor black men. The men thought they were receiving free health treatment, but were later banned from receiving penicillin.

Discussion:

Panel Q&A session.  The class split into two groups.  The first group was for Civil Rights letters and included Jacqueline, Robert, Leah, and Jordan.  The second group was for World War II letters and included Remington, Brooke, Carmen, and Casey.  Each panel went to the front of the room and the rest of the class was given the opportunity to ask one of the panel members for either clarification or further information about a letter.

Minutes 2/8/12

Minutes Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Prepared by: Brooke Hamroff

Present: Leah, Remington, Jordan, Robert, Casey, Jacqueline, Carmen

Presentation: 
Carmen presented the minutes from last class. Suzanne explained that presenting the minutes is a good way to practice presentation skills and learn to speak confidently and effortlessly.

Topic: 
Suzanne collected our memo responses to Howard Schultz. One per group (4 total).

Topic: 
Suzanne handed back our email response homework evaluations. Overall our responses were good, but some of us lost points on forgetting to revise the subject line. Some forgot the signature block, and Suzanne clarified that the signature block does not act as a closing signature – an email needs both. Also, we should not say “Dear Client(s)” in a personal email.

Topic: 
Letters. Letters are an important way to communicate both internally or externally. They are more formal and have remained a common form of communication for centuries. Examples of historical uses of letters include St. Paul, Epistles, Sherlock Holmes, ancient Egyptians, and many more. Letters are important for archiving, they are more personal and formal, express more thought, and are tangible. Letters have kept a standard format over the years and over seas. Suzanne explains that a letter has the ability to grab you – she got a letter with a DIY origami and she kept that over other less intriguing letters.

Discussion: 
Suzanne showed us the website www.LettersOfNote.com that posts interesting letters. We looked at letters from Conan O’Brien, Pete Docter, Ronald Dahl, Stephan Hawking, Harper Lee, and Princeton University. We also saw memos from the head of Tiger Oil Company, which were very harsh, and Jeffrey Katzenberg at Disney. We each went up and read a portion of the 28-page memo as an impromptu public speaking exercise. We discuss how the memo is similar to Howard Schultz’s memo, urging the company to focus on its core values – a common theme in business memos and evaluation.

Discussion: 
Suzanne speaks about twitter and other forms of social media as new ways to get messages across in big ways such as revolutionary ideas across borders (ex: The Arab Spring). Letters used to be the main form of communication in times of political revolutions. Ex: After WWII – Einstein, Hitler, Gandhi. This led into our assignment for Monday. We were each assigned a historically famous letter (MLK Jr., Abraham Lincoln, the Macon County Department of Health, Virginia O'Hanlon, Ghandi, Albert Einstein, Rainer Maria Rilke) and must research the historical context of the letter. On Monday (2/13/12) we will each present a 3-minute presentation discussing the context of the letter and the historical significance. We will be evaluated on our ability to cover the importance of the letter, the time limit, keeping eye contact, not fidgeting, and using the room rather than standing in one spot.

Minutes 2/6/12

Prepared by: Carmen Ferraro

Present: Remington, Robert, Casey, Jordan, Leah, Brooke, Jacqueline, Carmen

Discussion:

Suzanne handed out a grammar exercise. We worked on it individually, and then traded it among ourselves to discuss the corrections.

Topic:

Review of Professional Profiles. Suzanne told us the mistakes that many people made in our Professional Profiles. We should show not tell our skills and should not use clichés. Do not use phrases such as “at this time” or “moving forward.” Instead, use “Then” or “now” or “in the future.” Similarly, avoid the word “unique.” Be careful of passive voice and awkward sentence structure. The professional profiles were graded out of 20 points. The range was 13-18 points. The median grade was 15.25 points and the mode was 14.5 points. We got them back at the end of class.

Topic:

Memos. Suzanne explained that memos are similar to e-mail, but less formal than a business letter. Memos are almost always used internally within an organization or group. They are a quick and effective way to inform people (ie. a new change in policy). Suzanne then showed us a picture of a “perfect” memo that she found in a mechanic shop. We reviewed the basic requirements for a good memo, which consist of who you are addressing, who it is from, the date, and the subject. The body is small paragraphs or bullets and usually addresses one topic or item.

Discussion:

Howard Shultz Memo. Suzanne handed out a real memo from Howard Shultz. We read it and then analyzed it as a class. Shultz addresses the current issues of Starbucks to the Chief Operations Officer and the Heads of Divisions of Starbucks in the memo. Shultz describes that the atmosphere of Starbucks have changed over time because of the new espresso machines and bagged coffee. Customers no longer have a strong relationship with their baristas or smell the coffee aroma when they walk in the door. The merchandise no longer matches up with their original view and stores have become generic. Shultz asks his team to return to the original vision of Starbucks and expresses his preoccupation with the rising competition.

Group Work:

Reply to Howard Shultz’s memo in pairs. We have the rest of the class to work on the memos with our partner (final drafts are due next class). Each pair will focus on the following topics: equipment, packaging, store design and merchandise buying, and competition and strategic market research. In the memo, we should address Howard Shultz (and the rest of the class). Suzanna said to make sure to explain your division and mention projections for the future/timeline. Be sure to write your name and title when saying who the memo is from. Brooke and Jordan are writing from the Equipment division, Casey and Robert are doing Packaging, Remington and Carmen are doing store design and merchandise buying, and Jacqueline and Leah are doing competition and strategic market research.

Minutes 2/1/12

Prepared by: Suzanne Langlois
Present:
Carmen, Jacqueline, Brooke, Jordan, Leah, Casey, Remington, Robert
So and So presented the minutes from the last class.
Topics:
Group Work:
Discussions:
Presentations:

Presentation:
Jordan presented her Personal Professional Profile to the class. She told us about her passion for the arts in general, and dance more specifically. We discovered she was a clumsy child. Now she is a graceful dancer since her mother had the foresight to enroll her in dance classes. Her professional ambition is to become an entertainment lawyer.

Topic:
Meetings. Suzanne told us that the most important thing to remember about meetings is to not abuse them. Cancel the meeting you scheduled if you can't fill an agenda appropriately. Don't hold meetings to complain, boast, or avoid awkward conversations with one person. Do hold meetings to have discussions that are best had (?) with all interested parties together in the same room face to face, to facilitate the group's purpose. We went over meeting Agendas and Minutes.