The ROI Podcast

Recently published research from the IU Kelley School of Business on IUPUI’s campus shows consumer trust in online reviews is influenced by spelling errors and typos, but how much those errors influence each consumer depends on the type of error and that person’s general tendency to trust others. Show Notes: Shane: Happy Holidays Everyone!!! And if you’re catching this episode at a later date, we hope you had a Holiday season. Along with the time being spent with family and friends, we know this time of year is extremely important for businesses – especially retail related. And according to studies, about 60 percent of shoppers will be researching and reading online reviews before they make a purchase. But how do these shoppers know whether or not they can trust a product or business? You may actually be surprised. Let’s start the show! (ROI Music) Shane: We are back! Welcome into The ROI Podcast presented by the Indiana University Kelley School of Business on the IUPUI campus. The Holidays are upon us as we record this – and things are starting to wind down for the year. Shane: We’re gearing up for the Holiday season and like many of you, I’ve got some shopping that I’ve got to get done… And I want you to think about something for a second. When you’re about to try a new store or a new product – do you do research beforehand? Do you read reviews? The fact is the majority of shoppers do, but the number of stars someone has earned doesn’t necessarily translate to trust, according to Kelley professors Tony and Dena Cox. Tony: There has been since about the 1970s, a steady decline among Americans in trust of all kinds of institutions Tony: As a further part of that conversation, another thing we all noticed in our own behavior as a consumer looking at online reviews, is how well or poorly the reviews were written, including spelling and grammatical errors. Shane: And that’s what Tony and Dena decided to focus their latest research on which is how consumers are influenced by errors that are left by other shoppers in reviews. Tony: What we did is we went online and got some actual reviews as our base stimuli, for a non-prescription pain reliever. We then altered them, so we had our control condition, which was close to what the actual review had been, and we created 2 modified versions that both had different types of textual errors. (SKIP A FEW SENTENCES) We created the error-free review, which was close to the original review, and then we had one with typos, like transposed letters and common keystroke errors, and another with genuine spelling errors. We did an online experiment where we recruited a national sample of consumers of various ages, levels of education, and so forth, and the respondents were randomly assigned to one of these reviews and asked a series of questions after reading it. Shane: This is where things get interesting… Tony says there tend to be two types of people: High trusters and low trusters. Essentially, the high trusters can pick up trustworthiness cues in other people, and the low trusters do fairly poorly at picking up these ques. Shane: So what does this mean for the research? Where there differences among the “high trusters” and the “low trusters” when it came to spotting these errors in the reviews? Shane: It was the high trusters who were more affected by spelling and grammatical errors in the reviews – Tony explains. Tony: That’s basically what we found in our research: the people who had low dispositional trust did not distinguish between the reviews in terms of the number or types of errors, but people who had high trust were very sensitive and in particular, they tended to not trust the reviewers who made careless errors – mechanical or typographical - because they associate carelessness with untrustworthiness; people are sort of loose and fast with the facts are also loose with the facts/information. Tony: They were much more forgiving, in terms of their willingness to trust this reviewer and what they had to say about the product, of people who just had challenges and maybe didn’t know how to spell. An example would be if somebody spelled “refridgerator”, “idg”, consistently – they’re not being careless, they just don’t know how to spell that word. People who were very careless, they viewed that as a cue that they’re careless with the facts too, and less trustworthy. That was interesting to us. Shane: So what we are seeing is two dimensions to the issue at hand – from a corporate perspective, there’s what people are saying: are they giving me a positive or a negative? And then there’s the issue if people will read the actual review, and then trust what has been written? Tony: Right – and the way to play it straight, it’s definitely beneficial to have positive online reviews; that’s been shown, the sales’ impact to positive online reviews for restaurants, hotels, and so forth, is really significant, but the old school way of trying to get those is just delivered good customer service. The consumers who are genuinely delighted with your product, those are going to be the ones who are going to be more likely to post online reviews. That’s the old-fashioned way, and there are a lot of companies out there that will advertise, “we’ll help you gen-up your online reviews”, and companies need to be cautious of doing anything that is ballot box stuffing or putting their thumb on the scales, and really focus on delivering a great customer service. The reviews will [then] follow. Shane So if I’m about to set up a business or take my first dive into online sales, how can I leverage online reviews to my advantage? Tony explains his big takeaway on this: Tony: My biggest takeaway would be is one reason why high-trust consumers who tend to be more discerning when they react to careless errors is that there’s some indication that they are a signal that this may be a bogus review. As one of the experts we cited in the paper said, “Writing fake reviews is a mass production business”, so a lot of the reviews tend to be written hastily and they’re more likely to have these careless errors. This is more of a warning, if you will, to companies who may be tempted – there are 3rd party organizations who will mass-produce favorable reviews for you to put on them on your website, or there are some companies that may encourage all their employees to go on and write favorable reviews. That kind of mass-production or attempted mass-production of bogus reviews is likely to send signals, like careless errors, that discerning consumers are going to look at and say, “This is bogus”. Not only may they discount that review, but they may have this boomerang reaction against the whole company. (Closing music) Shane: For some final thoughts – great business all comes down to providing an exemplary product or service, and complimenting that with the best customer service. By doing this, you are setting you and your company up for success – and the reviews and social proof – that will follow. (The ROI Podcast Music) Shane: It’s crazy to think that getting an online review isn’t necessarily enough. According to this research, if those reviews have spelling errors and other mistakes in them, different people can determine whether or not they trust that review – it’s just fascinating. Shane: Very interesting research. That’s going to do it for this episode of The ROI Podcast. We want to thank Kelley School of Business Marketing Professor Tony Cox for being on the show – and sharing the research he and his wife, also a professor of marketing at the Kelley School, Dena Cox has been doing. And we’d like to remind everyone to subscribe to the ROI Podcast and leave us a review on iTunes. Have a very happy holiday and we will see you back here soon!

One year after President Trump announced he'd saved hundreds of jobs at the Carrier Corporation in Indianapolis, there are lessons that can be learned. According to Kelley School of Business Professor of Operations Management Mohan Tatikonda, outsourcing of manufacturing is inevitable. However, there's a way for the U.S. to overcome it and bring higher waged jobs, but it requires higher skills and innovation. Show Notes: (ROI Music) Shane: Good morning, afternoon, evening – whatever time of day it is where you’re listening and WELCOME… To The ROI Podcast presented by the Indiana University Kelley School of Business – located on the IUPUI campus in downtown Indianapolis. We’ve got the associate dean of the Kelley School – Phil Powell – next to me. How are you, Phil? Phil: I'm doing great, Shane. Shane: Today, we’re going to talk about the future of manufacturing in this country… We always hear about jobs, jobs, jobs… And I’m from Kokomo, Indiana where auto manufacturing is vital for that community… But there’s a shift happening right now – a shift that is a double-edged sword in many ways… And if we can Phil, let’s go back to last year. Shane: When it made national news that Carrier, an air conditioning and refrigeration manufacturer here in Indianapolis, would be eliminating 1,400 jobs and moving to Mexico. You remember that, Phil? That was big news. Phil: I remember that. But as Mohan Tatikonda, professor of operations management here at the Kelley School of Business, has said from the beginning – this was just a spot solution. Outsourcing is always going to happen – we can put in place regulations, laws, and other mechanisms to slow it down if that were a good idea, but ultimately, work flows to where it is done at lowest cost and best. It’s almost inevitable, and we shouldn’t be against that because if work flows to some other place, it frees up our folks to work on more valuable things; so that’s the issue with outsourcing. Phil: But Mohan says outsourcing isn’t the main contributor to job loss.   The biggest reason for manufacturing job losses is technological progress: greater efficiency in plants, supply chains, and in the offices. These days, a bugaboo is robotics, automation, and to some degree, artificial intelligence. To anyone who is threatened or displaced by technological substitution, believe me, it’s stressful, mind-blowing, and it is a very present and real problem! But if we step back as a matter of humankind, we’ve always had technological progress: we want it and it makes society better. Think back to the Gutenberg press! Before that, how were books written? The stories [say that] monks would sit in these rooms, have all these different markers, pens, and paintbrushes, and they would literally write a book. So those monks were displaced and jobless when we had printing presses! I don’t know about monk job trends around the world, but I’m going to guess the monks were very successfully redeployed to other things, like maybe counseling people in the community. We’ve had technological progress in agriculture, we think about the cotton gin, Henry Ford’s assembly line - the management technique of assembly lines wasn’t made up by Henry Ford, but he was the first one to really commercialize it. Because of the assembly line, people were able to create a car in a lot less time and for far lower cost than before. We could think of that as a technological or management substitution for labor. Shane: So what Mohan is saying is that this is a matter of technological progress – which is a good thing for the most part? Phil: Yes. And Shane, think about this. There are really two types of manufacturing: there’s traditional labor-intensive manufacturing – are those are the jobs we are losing overseas due to lower wages. Then there’s this newer advanced manufacturing, where it’s highly automated and there a demand for talent to manage the machinery. And we can’t forget that machinery is just that: A machine. This issue about lower cost is, it’s not about a ten cent difference in wages – it’s a ten times difference, sometimes even greater. Any product that has a non-trivial amount of labor content can [be] produced at a lower cost elsewhere if the work is simple [and] easy to move somewhere else. Then there’s the kind of work that is more complicated – it often requires greater skills and workers who interact with automation and machinery. You know, a computer or a robot is just that: it’s a thing, a tool, but someone has to program it, set it up so that it does the right thing, make sure it does work well, and that it’s set up to communicate appropriately with other parts of the factory, robots, and other aspects in the supply chain. There are human beings who do these things, but they require different skills and typically, more training. What’s key here, if we care about retaining and growing manufacturing jobs and other higher-wage jobs, is that our companies need to produce products and services that are highly differentiated, that compete on features that others don’t provide, that are more responsive and customizable to consumer needs and so forth. 11:30 We can’t have our companies working on making commodity-style products that compete at the minimum cost where the effort is always to squish out the last penny. That kind of work is the kind of work that is the easiest to move elsewhere and is the kind of work that is the easiest to automate. Shane: So if I’m pickin’ up what Mohan is saying, it’s that as a nation, we need to stop trying to compete with other countries on cost and wages – but rather let’s go upstream – let’s innovate and create jobs that require high skill, and that aren’t as easy to replace. Phil: Exactly. So there’s this issue of developing an educated labor force who can man these machines and robots and be involved with the innovation progress, but there’s always the public policy that could be put in place to incentivize this way of thinking. Advanced innovation, continuous innovation, features and capabilities that other products and services don’t have – if we’re going to make those, we will have higher-wage manufacturing jobs. We know that there are some companies that do this, the question then becomes why aren’t more companies competing on an innovation basis and trying to make products and services that garner higher margins? It’s all about incentives - fundamental economics. What we find in some companies that instead of using their current profits to further invest in themselves, R&D, and new product, service, and market developments, they’re taking the profits and instead, using them to buy their shares back – this is the infamous “share buyback” issue. It’s about incentives and priorities - companies and executives in some situations are prioritizing buyback of shares, which rewards investors and shareholders, but then uses up that money which otherwise could’ve been used towards internal innovation and workforce development.  Phil: So as a manager, an employee, an executive – whatever your position may be. Focus on creating value for the customer, and providing a better product for that customer through an entrepreneurial mindset.  (Music Begins…) Mohan: Exactly, so it’s revenue maximization/growth by higher margins. If we’re going to be in a higher wage economy, that’s the only way we’ll be able to compete. Mohan: We need to have this entrepreneurial mindset and a willingness to experiment and innovate. We need to try to increase the value of our products and services through additional features, different capabilities, faster response to customers, ways to customize it to each customer instead of being an off-the-shelf thing, and so forth. So this goes throughout the company, this is from top-to-bottom, bottom-to-top, thinking with openness about new ideas and willingness to experiment and fail instead of just doing the same old thing again and again, slightly better. (ROI Podcast Music) Closing thoughts from Shane and Phil.

When you step to the table for a negotiation, do you feel confident you can come to a solution that's mutually beneficial to all parties? We've got you covered. In this episode of The ROI Podcast, Kelley School professors Stephen Hayford and Tatiana Kolovou discuss the ins and outs of negotiation and how you can master the art. Show Notes: Shane: It’s been said by Deborah Tannen that communication and dialogue is a dance, not a boxing match. What does that mean you might be asking? Well, in order to get what you want in business, or in life, you HAVE to be a great negotiator… And after listening to this episode of The ROI Podcast, you’ll have the tools of a powerful negotiator. Let’s do this! (The ROI Podcast Music) Shane: WELCOME BACK!!! Episode 29 of The ROI Podcast is here… 29 episodes, Phil… It’s hard to believe, isn’t it? Shane: Phil… I want you to think of something… How important is a negotiation, and communication in general, in our lives? I mean, think about it. When you’re a kid you negotiate with your parents for that new toy or to stay out past curfew. At work, you negotiate a higher salary or an idea you’ve pitched. Even things we don’t think about like negotiating where you and your spouse will have dinner… We do this often times subconsciously. 11:05 Steve: In today’s dynamic business and professional world, you cannot predict outcomes - you can’t even predict relationships at all times. But if you master process, if you understand how to play the game of negotiations, then that process skill set emboldens you to realize that you’ll find the answer. 11:33 You don’t need to know the answer at the beginning - if you master process, you’ll recognize the answer when you find it. Phil: You just heard from Stephen Hayford, Professor of Business Law at the Kelley School of Business. He’s an expert in negotiation and conflict resolution… Steve: I’ve learned to recognize the people who do and don’t understand the process – those who don’t understand the process, when they find themselves in conflict, negotiating a contract, or solving a problem, tend to focus on arguments on who’s right and who’s wrong. They [also] tend to focus on overuse and overreliance on power – power and the merit of ideas are both very important aspects of negotiated decision-making, but when one recognizes and understands the importance of process, you have a playbook you can consistently use. Can I add one thing here to what Steven is saying: sometimes we get in trouble or we do a bad job with negotiating or we don’t get as much out of it because we hurry up the process. Phil: And that was Tatiana Kolovou, Senior Lecturer at the Kelley School of Business. Tatiana’s expertise also falls within negotiation and conflict management. We’re not patient enough to try to learn more about the other person, to try to build rapport, and maybe be able to use the information, not in a bad way, but to use it to build the relationship further. If we try to hurry it up and think that it’s a transaction, like putting gas in your car at the gas station, you’re not going to be able to be successful. What Stephen teaches is all of those signs and signals and having faith in the fact that this process exists and you have to walk the path. Shane: I’m going to pause there for a second and let’s talk about this process, which is so important. What is this process? Where do you start? Phil: So Stephen and Tatiana say it starts before the negotiating ever begins. Stephen: I think the real key at the front end is listening. This idea of diagnosing the relationship, for example, if I’m dealing with you as a supplier and you are my customer, and I know that you have three viable alternatives to working with me, that’s going to make a big difference in the way I present myself to you contrasted with the circumstance where I know that I am your only alternative. There is no what we call “BATNA”, Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement - if I know that you are an impatient negotiator, I understand from the beginning that I’m going to have to slow you down and show you the benefit of methodical approaches, as opposed to shooting from the hip. My experience has taught me that mindfulness, being alert, being patient, diagnosing the circumstance before I begin to act always pays off. Phil: And from a communication standpoint… Tatiana: First, you have to exude confidence, and I’m not talking about the over-confidence, sort of the aggressive “I’m going to take you down!” type of confidence, but a sense of calm and collectiveness that people have when you see them, you think, “This person has their act together”. It goes from how you sit at the table, how you make eye contact, how you learn and listen, or how you mirror the body language of the person you’re interacting with. If you are to be patient and calm, your body has to speak that as well. Sometimes our students don’t see that – they are in a certain channel of operation, and no one has stopped to say to them, “You tend to frown a little too much when you’re listening, and it may look like you’re not accepting what the other person is telling you!” I’ve done this quite often or videotaped people, and they have these big awareness “aha!” moments where they realize they may not be coming across as being open listeners to what the person is saying. Even from a body language - I’m reading a lot on power cues and in general, use of gestures – you want to be able to communicate that confidence, but you also want to read your audience. Phil: So that’s step 1 of this negotiation process. The next step is starting the conversation and Steve: Focusing on process, I think the first substantive  step is to bifurcate the issues at play into what we call distributive issues, those that involve these resource allocations - zero-sum, thick sum kind of decision-making, like cost, time, the available technology perhaps - and separating or delineating them from what we call the integrative issues where the parties’ goals are not in a conflict where it’s not a zero-sum game where we can create value. In that first distributive side, those issues are all about claiming value, and that’s an important part of the negotiation. If I’m a supplier, I want to maximize the price I achieve for my product or service. At the same time, it’s important that we move the process toward the value-creation side, which is integrative bargaining; we create value by identifying our mutual, non-conflicting goals and the interests that underpin those goals for each of us, and then we focus the process on serving those interests. Tatiana: As we’ve said earlier, at this point, listening, paraphrasing, and clarifying is important so that you show that you have invested interest in being there with your counterpart in the negotiation - that, again, is an opportunity to build rapport. How you do that is probably more with non-verbals than with verbals - you even want to nod and make strong and good eye contact. We talk about remembering people’s eye color, doing that intentional of eye contact so that you are not distracted by anything or people around you, obviously not any technology and being a good listener. In some cases, you want to show that depending on the situation or where you are, that you’re pacing with the person that you’re negotiating with. If the person seems to talk a little faster or seems to want to decide or speak to one specific topic, that you’re mirroring some of that, you don’t completely follow your style of communication. You dance with them, if you may say, so that you can be more in that equilibrium that Stephen was talking about. That doesn’t mean that you’re not direct or precise in your wording – as a good communicator, we recommend you pick your topic and your theme and you keep going back to that. Phil: So we’ve got the trust being built, we’ve begun to use our non-verbal’s to move the conversation forward… Next, we have to look for the nonverbals the other person is giving us to let us know whether we can move and push the conversation even further. Tatiana: The head-nodding, the eye contact, the open body language – all of that kind of tells me that I can move forward. If the person starts their shuffling papers, or if you start looking at your watch or distracted by what’s going on behind you, that just doesn’t give the signal that you have the patience to move forward to the next step with the person that you’re working with. Phil: But as I’m sure we’ve all experienced… We are human and we make mistakes… So we asked Tatiana and Stephen what are some common mistakes they see in negotiation and how can we correct them? Steve: I think inadequate preparation is one of the big ones that I see. I think the failure to manage the expectations of one’s constituency before you get to the table, so as to define was a truly acceptable outcome is. Tatiana: I want to quote the author Deborah Tannen that talks about “communication and dialogue is a dance, it’s not a boxing match”. If you go into it thinking you’re going to shoot, they’re going to shoot, you’re going to be playing offense and defense all the time, you can’t be a good listener because you’re just waiting for them to slip so that you can get your point across. you have to learn to flex your style if you’re going to be a good negotiator. When we don’t, that’s a big mistake – we have to adapt. Phil: So to wrap this up – when you’re heading into a negotiation situation: Prepare, know the process and the agenda you’re wanting to accomplish, but also be flexible – because as Tatiana said: Negotiation is a dance, not a boxing match. (ROI Music) Shane: Negotiating can be one of those topics that can be uncomfortable for us in the beginning, but what I really picked up from Stephen and Tatiana is it’s not nearly as intimidating if you go in prepared and set some clear expectations. Shane: And that’s going to do it for this episode of the ROI Podcast. Thank you to Kelley professors Tatiana and Stephen for sharing their expertise with us. And both of them will have a course opened up to the business community in the coming months. We’ll post more about that when it becomes available. Phil: And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and leave us a review on iTunes. Shane: And we’ll be right back here next week on the ROI Podcast!

For years people have shopped 'till they dropped when it came to the capitalistic holiday Black Friday. But with shifts in consumer's shopping preferences, Black Friday is evolving. Could these changes be the last straw for brick and mortar retailers? Kelley School of Business senior lecturer in finance, Todd Roberson, weighs in on the "new" Black Friday. Show Notes: 8:00 Shane Simmons and Phil Powell introduce this week’s episode of The ROI Podcast where the topic will revolve around Black Friday and how it has changed. 1:33 What we are seeing with online retailers is a revolution for consumers. 2:15 Kelley School of Business senior lecturer in finance, Todd Roberson, joins the podcast for a Q and A session on Black Friday. 2:30 In 2016 there were 137 million shoppers and they spent about 45 billion dollars in store on Black Friday. That same day, 5 billion dollars was sold online, a 19 percent increase in sales from the previous year. 5:31 In the past, major retailers were both the retailers and the supply chain. 6:25 As online shopping has accelerated, data analytics and artificial intelligence now have allowed outlets like Amazon to know what the consumer wants before the consumer asks for it. 7:13 Todd believes the future success of retail is in either a highly-specialized, unique retail niche or experience shopping. 7:55 Much of the way retail has changed is due to a radical shift in consumer preferences, but also advances in technology, supply chain management, and data analytics. 8:15 You know what your customers want by collecting data on them.  11:37 Shane and Phil close this episode of The ROI Podcast.

Did you know many small businesses are one fraudulent wire transfer away from going out of business? The average cost for a data breach for a U.S. company as of 2016 was seven million dollars. Many businesses have already been breached but don't even know it. So how do you protect yourself and your company's information secure? Scott Shackelford, assistant professor of business law and ethics for the Kelley School of Business shares how you can keep your information protected from hackers in this episode of The ROI Podcast.   Show Notes: 0:01 What does "hacker" mean to you? 0:36 Introduction to The ROI Podcast with Shane Simmons and Phil Powell. 1:08 In this episode of the podcast, Shane and Phil talk with Scott Shackelford, assistant professor of business law and ethics for the Kelley School of Business. 1:47 The average cost of a data breach for a U.S. company as of 2016 was seven million dollars. 2:19 There have been several data breaches in Indiana, including Anthem. 2:56 It's not only big companies that can be targeted. 4:54 How do you protect yourself and your data from being hacked? 5:25 There's a focus on offense rather than defense in the cybersecurity space. 6:04 Right now many companies have a faith-based approach to cybersecurity where they pray every night nothing bad will happen. 8:00 Tips for mitigating your risk of being hacked. 10:40 Shane and Phil wrap-up this episode of The ROI Podcast.

Do you believe you should have the ability to shop for your healthcare like you shop for groceries? Do you know what healthcare plan is best for you and your family? Deb Gordon, a senior fellow at Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School, shares her research on how consumer-based healthcare and the impact it could have on you. Show Notes: 0:35 Shane Simmons and Phil Powell introduce The ROI Podcast. 1:00 Today’s episode will be discussing healthcare in the United States. 1:23 Physicians drive 80 percent of the resource allocations decisions in healthcare. 1:49 Healthcare represents 20 percent of the U.S. economy. 2:10 Deb Gordon joins the podcast. Her research focuses on consumer behavior in the healthcare marketplace. 3:47 Deb uses the analogy of shopping for groceries when relating it to consumer-driven healthcare. 4:44 Healthcare consumers are already beginning to ask about pricing and shopping around. 5:53 Deb believes physicians play a more important role now with the changing dynamic of healthcare. 7:00 Deb’s research shows clinicians are typically not trained to consider the cost for the patient, but rather just focus on treatment. 8:17 Deb believes the market will win out, and healthcare will evolve to the consumer.

It's not like the old days -- business has changed. Employees don't stay at their jobs as long as they used to, and managers are finding it harder to motivate and retain their employees. Brian Parsley, a world-renowned speaker, and business consultant share some tips with our listeners on how they can continue to motivate and engage their employees. You'll be feeling motivated and ready to conquer your goals after listening to this episode.   Show Notes: 0:00 Shane Simmons introduces episode 25 of The ROI Podcast. 1:13 Brian Parsley will be on the podcast. Brian is a motivational business consultant who works directly with CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. 1:45 CEOs are tired of hearing about the differences among the different generations. 2:06 How do you get people to be engaged with the company and help the honeymoon stage last longer? 3:15 A study conducted by Brian found that employees at a fast growing company weren't as interested in money as they were feeling involved and being appreciated at work. 3:44 Money is a temporary motivator. 4:43 We live in an age of now. 5:00 Leadership is the power of influencing people. People don't care about titles anymore. 5:50 To motivate others, and yourself, you have to go all in. You can't accept failure. 6:24 Success doesn't make you happy, but being happy makes you successful. 7:43 You achieve your goals by taking action. 8:38 Shane and Phil conclude the show.

Indiana, and other states in the U.S., have an interesting dilemma: Jobs are opening up faster than workers can fill. According to a recent survey conducted by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, nearly 50 percent of employers said they have had to leave jobs open because of the lack qualified employees. So how does this impact our state, and what does this mean for the future of jobs? Kevin Brinegar, President, and CEO of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce explains what it all means for our future.   Show Notes: 0:10 Shane Simmons and Luke Cooley open the twenty-fourth episode of The ROI Podcast presented by the Kelley School of Business on the IUPUI Campus. 1:18 Indiana and other U.S. companies are struggling with a labor shortage. 1:44 Indiana Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Kevin Brinegar says companies need to start building and expanding their talent pipelines now. 3:03 Tennessee has dedicated dollars from the lottery that they use for workforce training to prevent such talent shortages from intensifying. 3:58 The labor shortage issue is more serious in Indiana because it's such a manufacturing state. 4:44 We are beginning to see more machines and more automation which could totally replace all middle and lower-skilled jobs. 6:55 Workers must continually invest in themselves and improve so they can't be replaced by a machine. 7:49 Kevin says if you are not planning and preparing for the continued labor shortage you could be leaving customer and business opportunities on the table. 9:20 Shane and Luke close this episode of The ROI Podcast.    

E.W. (Ed) Kelley was one of the most successful and notable business leaders of his time. Known as the modern-day founder of Steak 'n Shake, Ed Kelley set the foundation for what it means to conduct one's self in life and business. In this episode of The ROI Podcast, Ed's friend and colleague, who's also a Kelley School of Business professor, Bob Grimm, discusses Kelley and what we can learn from him. Show Notes: 0:20 Shane Simmons and Phil Powell introduce the episode of The ROI Podcast. 2:07 Our guest, Bob Grimm, was the vice president of human resources for Ed Kelley during their time together at Steak 'n Shake. 2:32 Bob says he learned early on that Ed Kelley loves to work, make progress and see results. 3:22 Ed Kelley was his toughest critic. When he would prepare for a performance appraisal, he would do a self-appraisal and he would put that into his top right desk drawer. He would not allow a superior to be more critical of him than he was on himself. 3:55 Ed had developed the idea of restless dissatisfaction. 5:30 Ed always held high standards for himself and his employees. 5:53 Ed emphasized enthusiasm and energy. 8:00 Shane and Phil share their final thoughts on the episode. 

Why are some people ultra successful and live a life most only dream of, while others seem to be caught in a rat race? On this episode of The ROI Podcast presented by The Kelley School of Business, time-management author Laura Vanderkam shares her findings after interviewing some of the most successful people in the world who've mastered the art of managing their schedules.   Show Notes: 0:01 The ROI Podcast opens with a soundbite from the Twilight Zone. 0:23 Shane Simmons and Phil Powell introduce Episode 22 of The ROI Podcast. 1:07 According to research released by Salary.com, the average office worker admits to wasting 1.7 hours per day. 2:06 Laura Vanderkam joins the podcast. 3:00 Laura says people need to define a small amount of tasks people want to achieve and work towards those which fit into the bigger picture. 3:52 It's ok to have distractions, but you need to work that into your schedule. 4:45 Laura explains how some of the most successful time managers try to avoid being bogged down with meetings. 5:37 Tip number one to better time management: conduct a time audit. 6:22 Use an Excel spreadsheet to track your time. 7:00 Learn to manage your email and not be encompassed by it. 8:21 You don't have to work around the clock to have a career breakthrough. 10:57 Subscribe and leave a review for The ROI Podcast on iTunes.

Do you want to increase your sales? In the information age, selling techniques need to evolve with the times. In this episode of The ROI Podcast, Shane and Phil speak with Phil Gerbyshak, Chief Digital Officer at Vengreso about providing value first to customers, and transforming the way many of us were taught about selling.   Show Notes: 0:01 New ways of buying means you need new ways of selling. 0:18 Shane Simmons and Phil Powell welcome listeners back to The ROI Podcast. 1:14 When you think of sales, what comes to mind? 1:40 In Episode 21 of The ROI Podcast, you’re going to learn what it takes to become a sales master in the digital age, and how to use LinkedIn as one of your biggest assets. 1:53 Phil introduces Phil Gerbyshak, Chief Digital Officer of Vengreso, a digital sales transformation company based in Tampa, Florida. 2:03 Ten years ago it was all about the numbers. It was a numbers game. 2:32 Statistics show us that customers need more information today to make a decision. 3:23 Tip number 1 to increasing your sales: you can’t wait until the end for that big revealing feature of your product or service. 3:59 Sales today are more story focused. 5:05 You can’t just post your achievements on your LinkedIn profile, you need to connect those achievements to your customer displaying how those achievements can translate into value for them and their problem. 5:28 Use video whenever possible. 6:30 Value is king. 6:50 Your goal is not to sell product, your goal is to educate people and help them making a buying decision. 7:08 Marketing and sales must work together in an organization. 8:17 Who is my ideal customer? How do I serve them? What problems do they have? 8:28 The final tip: Don’t try to be the jack of all trades. 8:50 You don’t need to be everywhere, you need to be where your customers are. 11:00 Be sure to subscribe and leave a review on iTunes for The ROI Podcast.  

Whooo! The ROI Podcast has released its twentieth episode! In celebration, we've highlighted some of our favorite moments in the podcast including insight on how to handle workplace bullies, building a business, leadership and more. Kick back, relax, and enjoy this episode of the podcast.

Why do we donate our things? Why don't we just give money when there's a crisis? In this episode of The ROI Podcast, assistant professor of marketing, Helen Colby, discusses her recent research and the implications it could have on the way organizations collect donations. Show Notes: 0:15 Introduction to The ROI Podcast Presented by The Kelley School of Business on the IUPUI Campus. 0:55 Kelley's Helen Colby is on the show, she's an associate professor of marketing at the Kelley School of Business. 1:13 Why do people give "things" or tangible items instead of money when donating. 2:16 Helen says sometimes when organizations receive massive amounts of donated items, it can cause management and even public relations issues. 3:32 There are a lot of different things that motivate people to give, generally, Helen believes it's a sense of doing something that beneficial to someone else. 3:47 People are much more generous when there is an identifiable victim versus a statistical victim. 4:58 Normally, according to the research, if an individual has an item, they value it more than something that person doesn't yet own. 6:00 Their research found that people who donated an item they owned, felt like they were doing a better service because that idea had more value to them. 7:15 The takeaway from the research: make people feel like whatever you want them to donate, they already own that item. 9:01 Subscribe and leave us a review on iTunes.

Uber's recent controversy in regards to the multi billion dollar company's workplace culture resulted in Founder and CEO, Travis Kalanick, resigning and 20 employees fired. So what can we learn from this situation? According to Kelley School of Business Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management, Elizabeth Malatestinic, the debacle should teach start-ups the importance of the human resource role within a company. In this episode of The ROI Podcast, Liz talks about how managers can leverage their human resources department to make the company more profitable, and increase the workplace culture.  Show Notes: 0:01 People want to feel like they matter in the workplace. They want to feel like their contributions are valued. 0:14 Shane Simmons and Associate Dean of Academic Programs, Phil Powell, welcome listeners back to The ROI Podcast Presented by the Kelley School of Business on the IUPUI Campus. 1:15 In this episode, Shane and Phil are talking about the recent controversy with a Silicon Valley company, and the lessons we can learn from them.  2:02 Liz Malatestinic says there is a lot of misconceptions about Human Resources. 2:56 Liz references The hit T.V. show The Office, and Michael's strong dislike of Toby, the HR employee. 3:36 Liz says Uber, under Kalanick's leadership, had a culture where Human Resources was thought of an entity only meant for recruiting new employees. 4:18 Liz mentioned how sometimes the founders of successful startups can be blinded by their own perception of the company culture. 5:33 Phil mentions a common theme he and Shane have come across while interviewing successful leaders, and that's making employees feel like they are an important part of the organization. 6:28 Liz gives an example on how to avoid issues within your company. 6:35 Liz says too often the company's leadership will make a major decision, then approach the HR department and ask that they implement the policy, without every meeting with the department before coming to the decision. 8:20 Once a company gets to about 50 employees, Liz suggests hiring an HR employee. 

When Ernest Malone began his firefighting career, he never could have predicted he'd become the chief of the Indianapolis Fire Department. Every day, people look to him for guidance and answers. In this episode of The ROI Podcast, Chief Malone explains the secret to his success, and how those seeking advancement in their life can achieve greatness with the proper mindset.  Show Notes: 0:03 I don't want you to lead by showing examples of your power, I want you to lead by showing the power of your example. 0:17 Introduction to The ROI Podcast presented by The Kelley School of Business on the IUPUI Campus located in downtown Indianapolis. 0:46 For the past several weeks, the focus of the ROI Podcast has been about leadership, documenting graduates of the Randall L. Tobias Leadership Center's Fellows Program. 2:04 Today's guest is Chief Ernest Malone, who has been with the Indianapolis Fire Department for more than 30 years. 3:15 Chief Malone encourages people to take lateral moves in their career because of the experience you gain and the connections you make. 4:31 Chief Malone says you can learn from everyone around you. You don't have to only learn from successful leaders or people, but you can learn from those who have failed at times. 5:48 Chief Malone says by leading by example, you gain credibility and loyalty. 6:48 Be people-focused while staying data-driven. 7:20 Chief Malone is a graduate of the Fellows program. He explained how he confirmed leadership is everywhere you look, mentioning his experiences while in the program. 8:46 Chief Malone says to keep an open mind, and be receptive to experiences that you can learn from. 10:00 Shane Simmons and Julie Manning Magid wrap-up this episode of The ROI Podcast.