Graduate-level MBA Professors Share Real World Experience

Pacini: Persuasion by Financial Analysis

"The analytical procedure of financial ratios — current assets divided by current liabilities — is one of the tools auditors use to measure liquidity in a business. When I was a banker, I did an in-depth financial ratio analysis of a business that had applied for a commercial loan and was denied. I sat down with the business owners to show them weak areas in their business illustrated by certain financial ratios. The business owners used this information and my suggestions to improve their credit policies and the collection of accounts receivable."

Sandra Kauanui, Ph.D.
Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship
Chair, Management Department Director, Institute for Entrepreneurship
Lutgert College of Business
Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers

Students in Sandra Kauanui's entrepreneurship class love to hear their professor tell about how the financial services firm she launched on a shoestring grew to 40 employees.

But what seems to fascinate them most is how, after 20 years of providing financial, tax and accounting services to other entrepreneurs, Kauanui walked away from that business to return to school and earn a Ph.D. "They always want to know why," she says, "and my answer is this: When it's no longer your passion to be doing something, it's time to let it go."

It's the most important lesson from her own experience that Kauanui believes she can pass along to her students. "Being successful in business is not about making money; it's about having passion for what you do. Life shouldn't be a chore."

Another lesson Kauanui shares is how the business grads she hired fresh from the classroom were a disappointment. "They had degrees all right," she says, "but they never seemed to know how to apply what they'd learned to the workplace." As a professor, Kauanui has made it her mission to ensure that her students practice the principles she teaches. She has them prepare actual business plans and present them, interview CEOs, engage in conflict negotiation and devise solutions for local businesses seeking help with real-world problems.

"Students still need to learn theory, of course, but being able to apply it is what makes the difference. It's how they become employable."

Jeffrey Weinstock
Lecturer / marketing
School of Business Administration
University of Miami

Languages, other countries and cultures and the idea of travel fascinated Jeffrey Weinstock as a child. He spent seven months in Brazil while getting his degree at Yale, then 13 years in Israel, where he earned his MBA from Hebrew University of Jerusalem and worked in marketing for before moving to Miami in the mid-1990s. All told, he speaks five languages in addition to English and has 20 years in international marketing, most at S&P 500 companies, the last of which was Carnival, where he was a vice president and headed international marketing for 85 countries.

The travel, as a veteran road warrior once had promised him, grew tiresome as the years went by. "The old cliché," says Weinstock, of planes, taxis, meeting rooms, taxis and planes again. Sightseeing rarely happened but, he says, "The best part of international business travel is being exposed to the way business is being done in different countries, different cultures."

It was while with Carnival in 2004 that he first taught a class at the University of Miami. "I realized what my true passion was," he says. He's been full time at Miami since 2009, bringing his corporate experiences to the classroom. "Many examples and illustrations from my very broad and sometimes embarrassing experiences," says Weinstock, 53. "The real-life lessons that can be brought into the classroom — they really show that what we're teaching them, the theories and models, are not ivory- tower concepts. ... I love teaching. I go to work happy every day."

Weinstock: Be Aware of Local Culture

"I had an experience in Russia that was very, very interesting. My negotiating partner was a very, very tough woman. The morning session was very difficult. At 3 in the afternoon is when they have lunch. We're driving in the car, the largest Mercedes I've ever seen. We're driving through the streets of Moscow and I'm like fainting from hunger. All of a sudden my negotiating partner said through a translator, ‘Tell me what university you are from?' She said, ‘who were your professors? Who is your favorite Russian writer? What is your favorite opera? What is your favorite ballet? What books have you read in the last six months?' The mood changed immediately. They look at your cultural level. They believe certain things are important and they want to see if you're like-minded. People want to do business with people they like."

Tags: Education