Jim Ryan (MBA ’87), chair of DePaul’s Board of Trustees, is full of gratitude to the university. “Both of my parents attended DePaul. That’s where they met. I like to tell people I’m eternally grateful for DePaul, because if it were not for (the university), I probably wouldn’t be around,” Ryan says.
Ryan credits his parents’ strong work ethic and values as driving forces in his life and his successful 37-year career at W.W. Grainger, an industrial supply company based in Lake Forest, Ill., where he served as president, CEO and board chairman. “Both of my parents grew up in Chicago. They were both first- generation college students, which is very much a big part of the profile of students at DePaul,” says Ryan. “My parents, like a lot of students at DePaul, worked to put themselves through school.”
His father, the late James Ryan Jr. (BUS ’53), had a long career in labor relations and human resources, working for companies such as General Dynamics and Freeman United. His mother, Patricia Ryan (BUS ’53), served as an assistant for many years to a number of different executives at Chicago-based companies.
Ryan took many of his DePaul MBA classes while he was working at Grainger in the 1980s. Ryan says that he was attracted to the program’s practical approach. “There were theories, concepts and ideas that I got to explore during my MBA that were directly applicable to the things I was doing during the day at work,” he says.
Dr. Gabriel Esteban and Jim Ryan, trustee and chair of the Presidential Search Committee, share a laugh as they chat about tie colors on stage Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017, at the Student Center on the Lincoln Park Campus. (DePaul University/Jamie Moncrief)
In May, Ryan was elected chair of the DePaul Board of Trustees, which he has served on since 2007. Playing an active part in the DePaul community is important to both him and his wife, Michelle. “My wife and I have been blessed in a lot of ways, and I feel like it’s a responsibility for us to give back to organizations like DePaul that have such a worthwhile and honorable mission.
DePaul transforms people’s lives, not only by providing a high-quality education, but also by providing access to that education to people who might otherwise not have access to it,” says Ryan.
The Ryans established the James T. and Michelle A. Ryan Family Scholarship earlier this year to fund tuition and expenses for graduates of the Chicago Jesuit Academy, a middle school in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood where Michelle is a volunteer teacher and board member. “Education will help the trajectory of these kids’ lives,” says Ryan. “This is great opportunity to (make) a very positive impact.”
Allyson Murphy (BUS ’15) is front office manager at Hotel EMC2, a boutique hotel that features two robots, Leo & Cleo, who work as personalized assistants to guests. The new art-and-technology theme of the hotel appeals to millennials.
Millennials are predicted to become 50 percent of all travelers in the Unites States by 2025, according to study by the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research. When they do travel, members of this generation are increasingly staying at boutique hotels in their quest for personalized, authentic and technology-driven experiences.
To find out more about this trend, we talked with Allyson Murphy (BUS ’15), front office manager, and Alexander Foster, director of rooms at Hotel EMC2, a boutique hotel that opened in the Streeterville neighborhood of Chicago in May. Founded by Lincolnshire-based SMASHotels and part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection, EMC2 has a millennial-appealing, art-and-technology theme that is inspired by scientist Albert Einstein.
In addition to working at EMC2, Murphy and Foster, who both previously worked for Starwood Hotels & Resorts, share their knowledge of the lodging industry as mentors for students in DePaul’s School of Hospitality Leadership.
Q: About what percentage of your clientele are millennials, aged roughly 20 to 35?
Foster: Almost half of our guests are millennials. We find that we attract a wide variety of travelers from all walks of life.
Q: How does the hotel’s theme and decor appeal to experience-seeking millennials?
Foster: Our guest rooms feature many different touch points for experience-seeking travelers. My favorite is the phonogram, which allows our guests to amplify music from their phones.
Murphy: Our hotel tells a story the minute you walk in the door. Guests are welcomed by Leonardo Da Vinci’s wisdom: ‘Study the science of art, study the art of science. Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.’
Q: Millennials are technology savvy and socially connected, and they expect the same from the hotels where they stay. How does EMC2 address their expectations?
Foster: No one has time for phone calls anymore, our guests included. We implemented a text-messaging platform that we found makes communication less intrusive for our guests and allows for a quicker connection.
Alexander Foster, director of rooms (left) and Allyson Murphy (BUS ’15), front office manager at Hotel EMC2, a Chicago boutique hotel. The hotel has an art-and-technology theme that appeals to millennials.
Murphy: Each guest room features an Amazon Dot (Alexa) that can connect to our Guest Services team. You can ask her almost anything, including restaurant recommendations, for any forgotten items, or even just to say ‘hi’ to our robots, Leo & Cleo.
Q:What services does EMC2 offer that appeals to millennials’ desire for unique, authentic and personalized experiences?
Foster: Our property features two robots, Leo & Cleo, that work as personal assistants. The experience of having a robot come right to your door with towels or welcome amenities is truly unlike anything else.
Murphy: One of the most authentic elements of Hotel EMC2 is our staff. Our Door Attendant team starts out guests’ experience from the minute they walk in the door. They tell the story of the hotel and show off each unique feature of our guest rooms. Our team is also knowledgeable about local art and science exhibits in the city.
Q: How is food and beverage at EMC2 designed to meet the preferences of the millennial market?
Foster: Our restaurant, the Albert, features globally inspired food, crafted by Executive Chef Brandon Brumback. His ever evolving menu consists of only the freshest local ingredients that are currently in season.
Murphy: Not only can our guests dine in our beautiful, library-esque dining room, but they can have that same experience in the comfort of their own guest room. Our guests can view the menu with ease on our interactive TV platform.
Q: Social consciousness and sustainable practices are important to many millennials. How does EMC2 support this?
Foster: With a focus on building the best possible team to deliver the best possible service, we partnered with Heartland Alliance, which actively helps refugees from all over the world. They have an incredible hospitality program, which trains their students to work in hotel operations and prepares them for a future in hospitality.
Murphy: Hotel EMC2 believes that creating is universal and innovation is the key to the future. Our team fulfills this vision through its partnership with Project SYNCERE, with a percentage of each reservation booked going directly to students studying in the STEM field.
Q: As student mentors at the School for Hospitality Leadership, what advice do you have for students and recent alumni who are entering the hospitality field?
Foster: Network! You never know who will become your next potential boss or coworker. The hospitality world is incredibly small and well-connected. Take advantage of every opportunity to interact with industry professionals as everyone has a unique piece of knowledge that they can share with you.
Murphy: Have an open mind and be willing to take on any role! Each experience is a unique opportunity for you to learn something new.
Q: Anything else you would like to add?
Foster: With all of our technology, it’s easy to forget our beautiful art that is everywhere in the hotel. Each of our meeting rooms, Emmy Noether (named for the German mathematician) and Symmetry, feature a unique custom piece created by our Resident Scientist Eugenia Chang. In Emmy Noether, Eugenia brought Emmy’s theory to life with a visual representation of her conservation of movement theory. In Symmetry, the concept and real-life instances of symmetry are displayed across the front of the room.
Murphy: From the novel we leave on the night stand in each guest room to the zoetrope in the lobby displaying artistry and angular momentum, we give travelers “Instramagable” moments throughout the entire hotel. The hotel encourages our guests to come together to appreciate art and science in a non-traditional way.
DePaul’ Universitys Mike Miller (right), associate professor of economics, and Tom Mondschean, professor of economics, discuss current issues facing the economy.
Mike Miller and Tom Mondschean are two long-time DePaul economics professors who are often interviewed by the media about current economic debates. Last fall, they teamed up to share their varying perspectives on economic issues shaping the 2016 Presidential Election as guest lecturers in a DePaul political science class. Business Exchange checked in with them again this fall to find out their views on five big economic questions that are dominating current national and local headlines. The questions include two submitted by alumni via the DePaul business school’s LinkedIn page. Below is an excerpt of this conversation.
Q: Do tax breaks stimulate growth in the economy?
Mondschean: Tax breaks can be an effective stimulus depending on the type of tax break. But I don’t think generally cutting taxes across the board necessarily stimulates the economy any more than any other kind of fiscal stimulus. For Instance, tax breaks to encourage more investment or research and development would be more useful than other types of tax breaks.
Miller: I agree, but would add a few other things. Many people on my political side think that all tax breaks always lead to growth. They point to two other cases (of leaders who implemented tax breaks): John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. What they are missing is that the rates that were changed (then) were excessively high and they were dramatic reductions. However, if you are talking about reducing taxes, which are already low, there is not any empirical evidence that this will lead to higher employment or higher incomes and so forth.
Mondschean: You also have to consider the offsetting factor of the deficit and how often people tie high tax cuts with government spending cuts to make the revenue deficit neutral.
Miller: There is research that asks the question: can you starve the government in order to cut taxes, and the answer is no. Cutting spending is not the number one way to get things to work. The most contractionary action a government can take is to raise taxes. The effect of a tax hike is much greater than a commensurate decrease in government spending.
Mondschean: It is not asymmetric in that way. Tax increases could potentially be beneficial if they cut the deficit. We already under fund our government given the amount of spending the people want to have and we push that responsibility onto future generations. The true level of taxation on the economy is the level of spending, not the level of taxes. Shifting the cost onto future generations by not taxing enough to pay for the spending is what we are doing and it is harmful.
Miller: According to the works of economic researchers David and Christina Romer, the most contractionary action you can take is increasing taxes, not cutting spending. Tom and I mostly agree that raising taxes can be bad. Overall, we agree, but you can actually make things better if you fund the government properly.
Q: How does Illinois’ pension crisis affect Chicago?
Mondschean: In some ways, it has not affected our city yet. The economy keeps chugging along. Illinois has been a cheaper place in which to do business in the last few years in part because it has not adequately funded its pension plan. I don’t think people fully understand the magnitude of the crisis that we’re facing. As of Dec. 31, 2016, the Chicago firefighters’ pension fund is about 21 percent funded; the police fund is just under 30 percent, and those are based on fairly generous actuarial assumptions about the underlying liabilities. Those funds will eventually run out. And what happens when they do? What do we tell the firefighters and police who have put their lives on the line for their whole careers to help the city when their pension funds run out? This is a crisis Chicago will face 15 to 25 years down the road. It is hanging over our heads and no one has a real sense of the issue. Chicago’s mayor raised taxes quite a bit to put money into the pension fund, but that was a small portion of what is needed. This has been a problem that will have an effect on the business climate in the long term.
Miller: I have nothing to disagree about this, but I would add that the only way around it—given that you can’t change the agreements—is to raise taxes. You have to fund it properly. When you compare our relative tax rates to others states around us, it’s clear that raising our taxes again can only be extremely damaging. When you combine income taxes with real estate taxes and sales taxes, we have a relatively high tax rate. The trouble is Chicago is so close to the border. If it were in the middle of the state, it wouldn’t be the same situation. All the surrounding states have a better business atmosphere than we do, which allows capital to move not that far and keep their customers.
The pensions have to be funded. It will be immoral to not pay these people their pensions that they have been promised. They’ve made their plans for retirement with these pensions in mind. But, how do we pay for them? We make assumptions that these funds will have a 7 percent rate of return—but the state hasn’t made their contributions. That is why our credit rating is the second lowest in the country—if not the lowest. Anything that you borrow, you are going to have to borrow at a higher rate.
Mondschean: This definitely affects the finances of the state and local government. Illinois is in a mess not only because of pensions, but also because we have huge backlog of unpaid bills.
Miller: Around $15 billion.
Mondschean: That’s a huge problem and the lack of any kind of consensus in Springfield to come to terms with this in a meaningful way is troubling. Chicago is a net revenue producer. We send more revenue to Springfield than we receive. This unfairness has never been addressed.
Q: Does globalization hurt U.S. economy? (alumnus reader question)
Miller: No, globalization helps, but it helps unevenly. There are going to be winners and losers. Some of my conservative colleagues and I split in this opinion. Some people are ruined by globalization. It is my opinion that if the government is going to impose such policies, it behooves them to then help these people be retrained to get into something else given what their policy has done. Are we better off getting the product with the lowest possible price, with the most efficient allocation of the world’s resources? But there are people who are clearly ruined by it and they have to be helped and given a chance?
Mondschean: I basically agree. But I’m not sure that retraining will be the panacea to help these people. It is a hard issue. I think if resources could be more efficiently allocated and it would strengthen the economy, but it requires new entrepreneurial activity to use the resources released by globalization. Companies can become more productive through globalization and then those companies become more efficient. Producing more goods and services with the same resources is how the economy and standard of living improve. We have not been doing a good job of improving entrepreneurial activity. That is one of the big issues facing the economy today: how can we increase the level of entrepreneurial activity especially in the poorer areas in the city?
Miller: The number one creator of new jobs is startups. The entrepreneurial activity in the country has started to fall before the recent recession and it has not recovered. People are becoming more risk averse. Something is not clicking in the entrepreneurship sector.
Q: What is the reason for stagnant wage growth? (alumnus reader question)
Mondschean: This is a complicated issue. I think that there have been changes in the way corporations are governed, which have changed the relationships between labor and capital. This has, in effect, reduced the bargaining power of labor. Most people get cost of living increases, but do not receive the benefits of productivity growth. Since the end of World War II until 1990, real wages and productivity have roughly followed the same upward trajectory. But since 1990, productivity has been rising and real wages have not. What I believe happened is that corporations became so fixated on raising their share price at the expense of everything else, that this has led to a transferring of value from certain stakeholders, like employees, to shareholders. We need to reward true value creation as opposed to value transfer or diversion. Value diversion should not be supported by government policy, but value creation should be. How to distinguish between those two is really hard.
Miller: The one thing I would add to that is that there seems to be a belief within corporate world that the returns you get on investing in new capital simply do not justify buying the new capital. If you have all this money, it can just sit there or you can use it to manipulate your stock prices. It could be that they have nowhere else to spend their money. The issue is that wages paid to workers are not keeping up with worker productivity. And we, as economists, teach that in an economy that is functioning properly, workers should be paid in relation to their productivity. The more you produce per hour worked, all else constant, the more you should be paid per hour. In no other expansion between the end of a recession and the beginning of the next recession has income not risen above where it was before. And we are in that situation today.
Mondschean: I think there is another simple explanation for this. The vast majority of CEO compensation is tied to the stock price.
Miller: Why did Mr. Trump win? Wages have not gone up. It becomes frustrating as a worker. What allows you to move up if you are born into the middle class? It’s harder and harder to move up. Those who do essentially take risks.
Mondschean: This is the age of shareholder capitalism in the U.S.
The Department of Management hosted 20 high school students for a summer program called “Be Your Own Boss.”
Over the summer, DePaul’s Driehaus College of Business invited high school students from across the Chicago area to participate in academic programs that introduced them to the higher education experience and potential future careers.
DePaul’s Department of Management & Entrepreneurship hosted 20 high school students for a summer program called “Be Your Own Boss.” Created in conjunction with the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA), BMO Harris and Macy’s, the six-week curriculum focused on career awareness, college readiness, team-building and leadership skills.
“This was a fantastic opportunity for students to focus on what they want to do in life,” says Susanne Mickey, who developed the curriculum for the program and is assistant to the Department of Management & Entrepreneurship chair. “The course helps students develop skill sets they didn’t even know existed, preparing them for not only college, but also for leadership in their communities.”
Students in the “Be Your Own Boss” program traveled to Iron Oaks Environmental Learning Center in Olympia, Ill., where they learned team-building skills outdoors. Pictured: Abdullah Hutcherson (holding the rope).
The “Be Your Own Boss” program is part of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s One Summer Chicago initiative that provides youth with employment and enrichment programs. Over the course of four weeks, students learned about leadership, management, marketing, sales, accountancy, financial planning, hospitality, communications and entrepreneurship. They also visited with sports and business executives from the Bulls, Bears, Cubs, PepsiCo and Macy’s.
Assistant Professor Andy Clark, who is the faculty coordinator of the Sports Management curriculum at DePaul’s Driehaus College of Business, arranged for the teens to visit Chicago pro sports team and lectured about business management. Visiting Assistant Professor Ivanna Zilic, the other main faculty member for the six-week program, taught the students interviewing and presentation skills and how to perfect their elevator speech.
Opening New Paths for Chicago Teens
Abdullah Hutcherson from Chicago Virtual Charter School decided to participate in the “Be Your Own Boss” program because he was interested in entrepreneurship and business management. “A lot of kids in this program may not have access to these opportunities,” Hutcherson says. “The ‘Be Your Own Boss’ program opens new paths and creates a different reality from what you see on a day-to-day basis.” Hutcherson one day hopes to own a gym and feels that the management, marketing and accounting skills he learned from the program will help him in the future.
At the end of this six-week program, students received a professional wardrobe courtesy of Macy’s. They learned how to make a polished business presentation, which they delivered in front of an audience of family, friends and supporters from CHA, BMO Harris and DePaul.
“When you are young, you are unsure who you are and who you’ll become,” Mickey says. “To be able to have this experience and participate in everything that is offered, in the end it can be a life changer. It will give you the assurance that you will go further in life, you can do anything you want to do and you can truly become your own boss.”
Actuarial Camp Introduces Teen Math Scholars to Lucrative Career Path
The Actuarial Academy at DePaul culminated with the student groups presenting their projects to the sponsors and their parents.
DePaul’s Arditti Center for Risk Management, which is part of DePaul’s Department of Finance, also hosted a summer enrichment program for teens this summer. The second annual Actuarial Summer Academy in August offered a one-week, on-campus program designed to get high school students engaged in the actuarial field through experiential learning, case challenges and visits by industry professionals.
“People who are good at math and stumble across actuarial sciences on their own are often frustrated that they didn’t find this career path earlier,” says Finance Professor Carl Luft (BUS ’75, MBA ’77), academic director of the Arditti Center for Risk Management. “We are introducing high school students to this profession much earlier so they have the tools to succeed in this lucrative career.”
DePaul is the only business school in Chicago with an actuarial science major. The Actuarial Summer Academy used this advantage to bring together industry representatives, talented high school students and DePaul faculty members. This year, 36 Chicago-area high school math students descended on DePaul’s Loop Campus to learn more about actuarial science as a career. The Actuarial Academy students were divided into seven teams each sponsored by a local corporate partner and assigned a real-world risk management project to solve by the end of the week.
Rayana Bush from Kenwood Academy in Hyde Park was looking for an enrichment course to take over the summer. Her pre-calculus teacher approached her about the actuarial academy. “I love math so much and I knew I wanted to find an interesting math profession, but there was never one I thought I fit in,” Bush says. “The actuary profession has opened my eyes to what I could be in the future.” Bush’s student team was sponsored by BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois, and she enjoyed meeting actuaries from the organization, learning new challenging concepts and tackling the group project.
The Actuarial Academy culminated with each student team presenting their project results to the other teams, faculty members and parents. “We are building the brand of DePaul and enhancing the actuarial profession with this academy,” says Clinical Professor of Finance Tom Edwalds, who led the camp with DePaul Assistant Professor of Mathematics Stefanos Orfanos. “We are looking to attract higher caliber of students to DePaul and introduce a lucrative career where each of these students can succeed.”
After graduating, Ryan Zieman (BUS ’13) moved to Madrid to teach English, travel and share his experiences in a blog.
Ryan Zieman (BUS ’13) embraces a life that is rich in experiences.
Shortly after earning his marketing degree from DePaul, Zieman moved to Madrid because he yearned to live in a Spanish-speaking country and to travel. For two years he taught English, trekked to a dozen European countries and shared his experiences in a travel blog.
Zieman returned to Chicago in 2015 and is now a social media consultant for McDonald’s. Outside of work, he enjoys meeting friends for drinks or dinner three or four times a week.
He does not own a car, and instead uses Uber and other ride-sharing apps to get around. He knows the value of owning a home, but is holding off on buying one for now. Although he likes shopping, he doesn’t invest in extravagant things.
The things I do splurge on are usually food, wine and traveling,” he says.
As a member of the millennial generation, Zieman is not alone in preferring to spend more of his time and money on experiences, like travel and eating out, than on things, such as cars and pricey possessions. More than 3 in 4 millennials (78 percent) say they would choose to spend money on a desirable experience or event over buying something desirable, according to a Harris poll conducted for Eventbrite. The survey also found that 72 percent want to increase their spending on experiences in the future.
Millennial spending preferences are a potent force in the marketplace. Millennials number 80 million and surpassed baby boomers as America’s largest generation last year. Born between 1980 and 2000, millennials are entering their prime spending years and have a collective purchasing power of $600 billion annually. Accenture estimates that this will grow to $1.4 trillion by 2020.
The millennial generation’s hunger for consuming experiences, plus their increasing ability to spend, is feeding the growth of the experience-driven economy. To thrive in this new environment, professionals in a wide range of industries— from marketing and retail to hospitality and real estate—are radically changing how they do business.
Valuing What You Do, Not What You Own
Associate Professor of Marketing Sue Fogel
What leads many millennials to seek experiences over stuff?
“For the baby boomer generation, which was pre-internet, the way to show status was the number of cars you had in the driveway, the types of cars, how large your house was, where your house was located. Consumer goods were a way to secure and legitimize your status in society,” says James Mourey, DePaul assistant professor of marketing and author of “Urge: Why You Really Want What You Want (and How to Make Everyone Want What You’ve Got).” “For young people now, that’s not necessarily the case. They grew up in a time when everything you do is being tracked online. So on Facebook, on Instagram, you’re keeping track of your life. You are sharing what you do versus what you own.” DePaul Associate Professor of Marketing Sue Fogel says the phenomenon also is tied to how millennial consumers view physical things, which can lose perceived value over time, versus memories of experiences, which can be relived in the mind and online.
Experiences are valuable because you can consume them again and again,” Fogel says.
The rise of the sharing economy—from Uber and Divvy bicycles to collectives that lend everything from tools to kitchen equipment—also reflects changing attitudes about owning things, especially among millennials, she adds. “You don’t personally have to own something to benefit from it. There are things you can take advantage of when you need them and forget about when you don’t.”
Instagrammable Moments
Jeff Cloud (BUS ’97), director of digital platforms at GGP, says today’s malls are being infused with opportunities for social media-friendly experiences.
The millennials’ less-is-more lifestyle can present a challenge for traditional shopping malls and their retail tenants. But Jeff Cloud (BUS ’97) and his colleagues at GGP are turning that challenge into opportunity by transforming mall shopping into an experience.
GGP manages a portfolio of 115 premium retail properties across the nation, including Water Tower Place, Oakbrook Center and Northbrook Court locally. “Our core business is to lease space, but we spend a significant percentage of our marketing dollars on consumer marketing in an effort to make our tenants as successful as possible,” says Cloud, director of digital platforms at GGP.
One of GGP’s marketing priorities is to make the consumer experience engaging “throughout the shopper journey, from couch to closet,” Cloud says. It begins, he explains, when a consumer, sitting on her couch at home, is inspired to buy something new. It proceeds through her trip to the mall, finding parking, navigating the mall, making a purchase, sharing the experience on social media and then heading home, where she places the item in her closet. For millennials, mobile devices are the go-to guide for this journey. To make this experience more engaging, Cloud says, GGP is investing in search engine optimization, digital advertising and social media, as well as responsive website design that features retail offers, mall event information, interactive maps and parking availability.
GGP is also strategically curating its tenants to make sure they appeal to experience-seekers. “The mall of yesterday was very heavy on the apparel side, but now we are changing that environment to be much more experiential,” Cloud says. GGP has designated more than $1 billion nationally for mall upgrades that include chic food halls, bowling alleys, fitness centers, outdoor lawn areas and movie venues.
We want to provide an environment and experience that’s Instagrammable,” Cloud says.
Surprisingly, the mix of mall tenants increasingly includes retailers that used to be online only. Amazon has a kiosk at Water Tower Place where it sells its Echo smart speaker. Fabletics, the e-commerce athletic wear company, is investing in bricks-and-mortar stores in several malls. “We embrace it because there is a positive correlation between the two (online and in-store retailing),” Cloud explains. “What we’ve found is that a tenant’s e-commerce sales increase in trade areas where a store is opened and decrease where a store has closed.” As a result, online retailers “are seeing the benefit of having the physical format as well.”
A Boon for Hospitality
Allyson Murphy (BUS ’15) is front office manager at Hotel EMC2, a boutique hotel that features two robots, Leo & Cleo, who serve as personal assistants to guests. This novel experience and the art-and-technology theme of the hotel appeals to millennials (Read more).
For hospitality enterprises, the growth of the experience economy is a boon for business. To capture the millennial dollar, however, hotels, restaurants and other industry players need to tailor their experiences to millennial values and lifestyles, says Nick Thomas, assistant professor at DePaul’s School of Hospitality Leadership.
Take hotel rooms. “Baby boomers and Generation Xers look for consistency,” Thomas says. “They are more likely to book through hotel websites, and they want recognition through loyalty programs. They are looking for traditional hotel amenities—a large desk, a big bed, a big closet, big bathroom. The hotel room is an extension of their home.”
By contrast, millennials shop around for the best deals through sites like Booking.com and don’t care as much about loyalty points or standard in-room amenities. “They are looking to come in, drop off their bags and then get out into the neighborhood, into the experience,” Thomas says. They also seek hotels with quirky decor and unusual services that create unique experiences, he says. For example, millennials are flocking to the Albert Einstein-themed Hotel EMC2 in Chicago, where two robots, Cleo and Leo, bring towels and toothbrushes to guests’ rooms.
As for eating out, millennials like it—a lot! A Food Institute analysis found that millennials spend 44 percent of their food dollars—nearly $3,000 annually—on eating out, a 10.7 percent increase from 2010 to 2014.
Driving the choice of where they spend these dollars, Thomas says, is the millennial quest to experience food from around the world and to know that the ingredients are healthy and sustainable.
Nate Arkush (MBA ’15), co-founder and managing partner of the Milwaukee restaurant FreshFin Poké, agrees. His millennial customers seek a high-quality but casual dining experience with food that is customizable and healthy. “Our menu offers a build-your-own option with countless combinations,” he says. “We see a higher percentage of millennials designing their own meals because it allows them to be a part of the experience and have some ownership in how their meal tastes.”
Renting Experiences
“From the economic mobility perspective, (millennials) might want to be more flexible, to be able to take a job in a different city and not get tied down with a mortgage,” says Geoff Smith, executive director of the DePaul Institute for Housing Studies.
Millennials’ preference for experiences over things is having a big impact on one of the milestones of the American Dream—homeownership.
“In Chicago, what you see is a pretty pronounced shift toward renting,” says Geoff Smith, executive director of the Institute for Housing Studies (IHS) at DePaul, which researches local housing market and affordability trends. Renters ages 25 to 34 accounted for 31.2 percent of all Cook County renter households in 2014, up from 25.7 percent in 2007, according to an IHS report.
Lifestyle choices and financial concerns certainly contribute to this trend—millennials marry later on average, and those who took out college loans may want to pay down that debt before plunging into homeownership. But many millennials who can afford to buy are still choosing to rent. “In particular what we noticed is big growth in renting by higher-income millennials, those earning 120 percent or more of the median income,” Smith says.
Renting in Chicago is appealing because it provides close access to city experiences and career opportunities, as well as the option to move easily to have these experiences elsewhere, Smith says. “They want to live in walkable neighborhoods, near transit, where there is access to jobs—and a lot of the jobs are increasingly in the core of downtown Chicago. From the economic mobility perspective, they might want to be more flexible, to be able to take a job in a different city and not get tied down with a mortgage.”
Developers are responding by building more rental properties with smaller units along transit routes. Smaller units mean more profit per square foot for developers, while offering millennial renters more affordable options that fit their lifestyle, Smith notes. “If you are going to spend most of your time outside of the apartment anyway, then maybe it’s not important to have a lot of amenities in the apartment, although you may want the amenities in the rest of the development.”
This trend reaches the next level with co-living—apartment-sharing buildings that rent by the room. Over the summer, New York-based Common opened Common Damen in Chicago’s Ukrainian Village neighborhood. The 12-bedroom development not only offers renters fully furnished, utilities-included rooms, but also the services of a full-time community manager who plans events and outings for residents.
“There’s clearly more demand than supply, so we’re going to keep growing to meet the demand,” Brad Hargreaves, Common’s CEO, told Crain’s Chicago Business. “It’s a huge, huge market.”
Mining Digital Gold, Meeting Millennial Expectations
“We want brands to create delightful and seamless digital experiences,” says Eric Acevedo (BUS ’08), business development specialist for Solstice.
Whether you are marketing a place to live, eat, visit or shop, millennials expect brands to create authentic, customer-centric experiences for them, says Eric Acevedo (BUS ’08), business development specialist for Solstice, a digital innovation and consulting firm that helps companies develop new products and adapt to new technologies.
“As millennials, we spend insane amounts of time and money on our digital devices and connected to the internet. We expect brands to have their act together when delivering experiences digitally, and a lot of them are falling behind,” says Acevedo, a millennial himself. “We want brands to create delightful and seamless digital experiences, which includes exceptional customer service online, timely deals, relevant recommendations, savvy social media and the use of emerging technologies to bridge the gap between offline and online.
“Increasingly, forward-thinking brands are leveraging new technologies like machine learning, artificial intelligence, the ‘internet of things’ and even augmented and virtual reality to deliver delightful digital experiences and connected products driven and personalized by data,” Acevedo says. “That’s where the gold is right now, and companies are working hard to mine that gold and build digital experiences for their customers.”
Michael Friedrich (MBA ’95) began his career as a McDonald’s executive abroad with a finance internship he completed while studying at DePaul.
Like many DePaul business alumni, Michael Friedrich’s journey to career success began with an internship he landed while he was a student at DePaul.
Friedrich (MBA ’95) studied finance and marketing and, through DePaul’s connections to the business community, earned an internship at locally based McDonald’s Corp. This opened the door to a full-time job in the global food retailer’s finance department after graduation, which then led to a series of executive positions with McDonald’s in Europe.
Friedrich has served as financial controller for Western Division of McDonald’s Europe and chief financial officer of McDonald’s Italy, among other c-suite posts. He is currently a multiple franchisee who owns the biggest McDonald’s restaurants in and around Prague, his hometown. He also stays connected to DePaul by sharing his knowledge with current DePaul business students who visit the Czech Republic while on study abroad trips to find out about European business practices first-hand.
Below, Friedrich discusses how his experiences at DePaul prepared him for his career journey.
Why did you choose to attend DePaul’s business school?
I had a dream to study business in the United States. In 1992, when I completed my engineer master’s program at the Prague School of Economics, I started to work with MBA graduates from different business schools across the U.S. at the Entrepreneurship Center, a nonprofit organization based in Prague. We helped small businesses in the Czech Republic to prepare business plans, obtain financing and, in some cases, find strategic partners.
I learned from my colleagues and some future lifetime friends about different MBA programs and passed the required tests. Then I came across a possibility to qualify for the Dean’s International Scholarship at DePaul University. The program was administered at the time by Peter Chadraba, the DePaul professor of marketing, who was then working closely with the Prague School of Economics. And thus started a relationship with DePaul that lasts until now.
How did your DePaul business education help you with your career?
DePaul and Chicago are very influential in my life. In the MBA program, I chose a finance major with an additional emphasis on marketing, which provided me with a sound knowledge of finance, marketing, economics and accounting.
A big advantage was the fact that DePaul’s business school classrooms are located in downtown Chicago, at the heart of real business. Many of my fellow students worked a few blocks from our school. It brought a very hands-on approach to our classroom, as often we discussed business cases and situations that where happening just across the street.
At the end of my studies, thanks to DePaul, I was offered an internship at McDonald’s headquarters and thus started another long-lasting relationship. I met several DePaul alumni working at the McDonald’s headquarters and, actually, the CFO of McDonald’s Corp. and future CEO of McDonald’s were DePaul graduates as well.
Finally, I also met my wife in Chicago. We met at a McDonald’s finance training in Oak Brook and to close the circle, she also is a DePaul MBA graduate.
What advice do you have for other international students who may be considering enrolling at DePaul in Chicago?
DePaul University is a very reliable and knowledgeable partner for your studies. It has a great faculty with a lot of experience, and it has a unique location in one of the most beautiful cities in the U.S. It is a strong, large university, but at the same time very personal.
I have created a life-long relationship with the university and its faculty and also with many of my fellow students. I made friends in Chicago and also from different parts of the world while at DePaul.”
You recently met with DePaul business students studying abroad. What was the most important lesson about business that you shared with them?
We discussed how the world is getting more interconnected. Opportunities, challenges and issues that pop-up in different parts of the world become overnight our agenda, too. Constant change is part of our lives.
I personally value long, personal business relationships and consistency, and I tried to convey this message, too.
Finally, I shared one of my favorite quotes from a great Italian movie, “The Leopard.” “If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.”
MB Financial employees enrolled in DePaul’s MBA program offered on-site at the bank.
Anthony J. Gattuso always wanted to earn an MBA. Like many working professionals, however, he hesitated to add another commitment to his already busy schedule. “There was always a reason to put it off — personal and professional obligations, etc.,” he recalls.
That changed when Gattuso, a vice president and senior field credit officer at MB Financial Bank, heard about a new partnership between MB and DePaul University to bring DePaul’s highly regarded MBA program to his workplace. Gattuso now attends DePaul MBA classes with 35 of his co-workers two evenings a week at MB Financial Bank’s Rosemont, Ill., offices.
When I weighed the specifics of the program — the benefits of an on-site program with a streamlined enrollment process, and an attractive cost relative to a traditional program — it was an easy decision to enroll,” Gattuso says.
“I view the program as an opportunity to further develop my business, leadership and managerial skill sets,” Gattuso continues, “while growing relationships with others in the organization — all in a location that is convenient and conducive for balancing my professional life with my personal life.”
The DePaul–MB Financial Bank collaboration is one of 25 education partnerships that the university’s Corporate and Employer Outreach (CEO) initiative has forged with companies in the banking, health care and technology fields since DePaul launched CEO in 2013. The partnerships range from tuition discounts and professional development opportunities to MBA and other tailored degree program offerings at company facilities. In seeking partners, DePaul primarily targets Fortune 1000 companies that have headquarters or major hubs in the Chicago area.
Anthony J. Gattuso is enrolled in DePaul’s MBA program offered at his workplace, MB Financial Bank.
Employers benefit from these partnerships as much as their employees do, says Dara Crowfoot, director of DePaul’s CEO initiative.
“Hiring is returning to pre-recession levels, and companies are looking for benefits that can help them attract and retain employees, especially millennial generation professionals who place a high value on education and training,” she explains. “These educational partnerships help companies keep their best employees from being hired away.”
“Long-term,” she continues, “DePaul wants to be recognized as a solution provider for area businesses and organizations seeking to cultivate and keep exceptional talent.”
Students Expand Networks, Gain Real-World Knowledge
One big benefit of DePaul’s corporate-based degree programs is that they build camaraderie and teamwork among enrolled co-workers, who progress through their studies together as a cohort.
“I’ve found that both the professional and personal connections with my classmates/co-workers are stronger as a result,” says Dan Butterworth, assistant vice president of consumer marketing at MB Financial Bank and a student in the DePaul MBA program there.
Butterworth also appreciates the opportunity to immediately apply what he has learned to his work at MB Financial.
“The first class in our program, Organizational Behavior, has given me tremendous insight into the obstacles decision-makers face. One of my long-term objectives is to develop a skill set that improves my decision-making ability. Needless to say, the program started off perfectly for me.”
For graduates of DePaul’s corporate MBA programs, the career benefits continue to accrue.
Dan Butterworth says DePaul’s onsite MBA program provides decision-making skills he can use on the job.
Matt Ley (MBA ’16), supply chain manager at Medline Industries, earned his DePaul MBA at the global medical supplier’s far north suburban headquarters. Ley sought the degree to enhance his knowledge of business because he had not studied business as an undergraduate.
“Besides the immense benefit of networking with my fellow employees, the program afforded me the opportunity to explore, discuss and engage in multiple business disciplines,” says Ley. “I have gained the ability to discuss marketing, sales, finance, purchasing and management — topics I would have felt ill-prepared for based on work experience alone. This increased knowledge means I have a larger pool of options before me regarding future development and advancement.”
DePaul’s large alumni network in Chicago also has helped boost the success of the university’s corporate education partnerships. Alumni have served as liaisons for DePaul to connect with company decision-makers to discuss collaborations, and also have spoken about their MBA experiences with co-workers who are contemplating enrollment.
At the Walgreens headquarters in Deerfield, Ill., alumnus and product development manager Alexander Rozenbaum (CDM ’00, MBA ’14) has spoken to his co-workers about the merits of the DePaul MBA program offered there, which focuses on health sector management.
“It’s a great and convenient opportunity,” Rozenbaum says, “for our employees to participate with other Walgreens employees in a top-notch MBA program that has a diverse, cross-functional focus and takes place at their workplace on our corporate campus.”
Learn More
For more information about DePaul University corporate education opportunities, contact DePaul’s Corporate and Employer Outreach (CEO) initiative at (312) 362-6911 or corporatepartnership@depaul.edu.
Alumnus Tom Blasczyk joins the Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M., president of DePaul, in rooting for the Blue Demons.
Tom Blasczyk (MBA ’70) was the first in his family to attend college. Then he earned an MBA at DePaul and enjoyed a successful career at Northwestern Mutual. He has traveled the world, base-camped at Mt. Everest and climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro.
Among his list of achievements is one he finds particularly satisfying: his 40-year unbroken record of annual giving to DePaul.
I believe in supporting education. My DePaul education has given me a life I could barely imagine growing up, and it feels good to know that I, in some small way, can help make that happen for young people today.”
Blasczyk grew up in a large family headed by a single mother on a farm outside Pulaski, Wisc.
“My mother had only a second-grade education, but she never tried to hold me back when I went to college,” he says. “She knew that education was the way to a better life.”
After graduating from the University of Wisconsin with a degree in accounting, Blasczyk joined the U.S. Army Reserve. Following a six-month tour of duty, he moved to Chicago to work for the accounting firm Arthur Young (now EY) and married his fiancée, Monica. He began working toward his MBA at DePaul. “I knew the MBA would be the key to advancing,” he says.
“The MBA program gave me a lot of expertise in business, but it also stressed the importance of working together with people,” Blasczyk continues. He eventually joined Northwestern Mutual as a financial services representative, and he has never looked back.
“I enjoy working on financial plans that help people achieve security and reach their goals. Without DePaul and everything I learned about finance and how to work with people, I would not have been blessed with this great career.”
He is “mostly retired” these days, and spends time traveling, hiking, biking and skiing. He and Monica, known as Todd, are still giving back. In addition to DePaul, they support the University of Wisconsin and a Catholic high school in Wausau, Wis.
“DePaul is a very important part of my life,” says Blasczyk. “Todd and I were lucky back then—it was a great time of expansion in this country. These days it is harder to get through school and get established. That’s why it’s so important to give back to future generations.”
Minimum Wage Hikes = Automation = Fewer Jobs? Not So, Study Says
Opponents of minimum wage hikes often argue that the move will only cause employers to reduce headcounts in various ways, including through automation.
To find out if this assertion is true, DePaul Assistant Professor of Economics Brian Phelan teamed up with Daniel Aaronson, director of microeconomic research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, to examine the effects of past state-based minimum wage hikes. Their forthcoming Economic Journal study yielded some unexpected results.
“Minimum wage hikes in the early 2000s did cause employment declines in occupations that involved routine tasks susceptible to automation,” Phelan explains. “Somewhat surprising to us, however, was that states that increased their minimum wages tended to experience employment growth in other types of low-wage employment that largely offset the losses in routinized employment during the first two years after the minimum wage hike.” For example, a grocery chain may cut cashier jobs after introducing self-checkout kiosks, but create new customer service positions to help shoppers navigate the system.
“Thus, while our results suggest that higher minimum wages are expediting the automation of low-wage jobs,” Phelan says, “we found that the costs of this automation on individual low-wage workers do not appear to be particularly large in the short run due to the concurrent growth in other types of low-wage employment.”
The 606 Trail Raises Home Prices and Affordability Concerns
Homebuyers are paying more green to be near the greenery of the new Bloomingdale Trail, also known as The 606, on Chicago’s Northwest Side, according to research by the Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul.
Home prices have risen dramatically around the linear park the City of Chicago opened nearly two years ago on 2.7 miles of disused elevated railroad tracks that span the Logan Square, Humboldt Park and West Town communities. Prices of single-family homes adjacent to the lower-income western half of the park jumped 48.2 percent since the project broke ground and another 9.4 percent after the trail opened. Home prices also went up in the areas adjacent to the higher-income eastern half of the park, but more modestly—13.8 percent since construction started and 4.3 percent after completion.
Rails-to-trails projects like The 606 are growing in popularity internationally because reclaimed green spaces offer many benefits to urban neighborhoods. However, rapid gentrification around linear parks can price lower-income residents out of the neighborhood, caution the study’s authors, Geoff Smith, Sarah Duda, Jin Man Lee and Michael Thompson.
“The lessons from what happened in the neighborhoods surrounding The 606 can help community members and policymakers identify, prioritize and target a balanced set of policies that will allow cities and neighborhoods to benefit from the success of public investment projects,” the study concludes, “while also preserving housing affordability and limiting the potential displacement of lower-income residents.”
Even though 98 percent of business organizations have formal policies against it, sexual harassment and other forms of aggression are a persistent problem in the workplace.
It’s a problem that Jaclyn Jensen knows well as someone who has been the target of harassment herself and witnessed its demoralizing effect on others in previous workplaces. These experiences influenced Jensen, an associate professor of management at DePaul, to focus her teaching on human resource management and her research on employee mistreatment and misbehavior.
My interest in this topic is fueled by a real desire for others (mainly women) to never be in a situation where they are treated in anything less than a respectful manner, and to help victims find proper recourse to prevent mistreatment in the future.”
“To that end, my work on incivility and harassment has investigated why employees are mistreated by their coworkers and bosses, how mistreatment affects victimized employees’ job attitudes and behaviors, and what bystanders and leaders can do to try and stop mistreatment from occurring.”
Growing up in Cleveland, Jensen initially wanted to attend medical school and become a psychiatrist. Her career focus changed at Ohio State University after she took an organizational psychology course and, as an undergraduate representative on the university’s board of trustees, saw firsthand the complexity of people management in large organizations. “These experiences opened my eyes to the blend of psychology and business in organizations and the need to be really thoughtful about people and human resources at work. It prompted me to pursue grad school in organizational psychology.”
Jensen earned master’s and doctoral degrees in this discipline at Michigan State University and then taught management courses at George Washington University for six years. She joined DePaul’s business faculty in 2012. This past fall, DePaul honored Jensen with its Excellence in Teaching Award.
Jensen says she strives to teach future business leaders that they have both the “opportunity and the responsibility to set the tone for employee conduct in the workplace.
“This goes beyond having a set of policies in an employee handbook, and is more about setting the right kind of examples both in their own behaviors and in the types of people who are hired, promoted and rewarded,” she says. “If the workplace jerk consistently gets ahead while those who treat others kindly do not, that sends a message about the kinds of behaviors that are valued.”
Leaders need to speak up about harassing behavior, Jensen advises, and hold organizations accountable for enforcing policies against it.
“If you witness this type of behavior, own your responsibility as a role model and do what you can to either help the victim, call out the bully or both. This is often easier said than done, as intervening in someone else’s personal conflict can be risky or difficult to do. However, if you’re trying to create a culture where mistreatment isn’t tolerated, intervening—even when the behavior seems to be subtle—is an important first step in preventing escalation and sends a message to victims and bullies alike.”
Jim Ryan (MBA ’87), chair of DePaul’s Board of Trustees, is full of gratitude to the university. “Both of my parents attended DePaul. That’s where they met. I like to tell people I’m eternally grateful for DePaul, because if it were not for (the university), I probably wouldn’t be around,” Ryan says.
