Guests
MKTG 376: Executive in Residence
Instructor:
The Spring Semester 2005 course included the following speakers and events:
Mr. Mike Johnson, Financial Services Officer, Farm Credit Services of Mid-America
Mr. Austin Wyatt, Austin’s Pizza
Ms. Susie Fenwick, Vice President of Operations, Ferry-Morse Seed Company
Mr. Walter Ward, Manager of Machining, Materials, Accounting and MIS
Marvin Windows and Doors
Ms. Jennifer
Hampton, Professional Sales Associate, Sanofi-Aventis
Mr. David Hayes, President and CEO of Security Bank (Business Day)
Mr. Steve Legens, Legens Hot Rod Shop
Mr. Keith Cursey, Human Resources Manager, MTD Consumer Products
Mr. Dustin Gibson, Assistant Human Resources Manager, MTD Consumer Products
Mr. Scott Couch, News Anchor, WPSD TV (Kiwanis speaker)
Mr. Kerry Brannon, Customer Service Manager, Tennessee Valley Authority
Speaker and company
profiles:
Marketing 376
Spring 2005
Mike Johnson
Mike Johnson works for Farm Credit Services out of the Dresden, TN office. He has been working with Farm Credit Services since he graduated from UTM in 1987. Farm Credit Services makes loans for anything dealing with farming, such as livestock, land, machinery, etc. Most of the loans that the business gives are to people in rural areas. They do make home loans sometimes, but there are certain restrictions to which they can be made. Farm Credit Services deals with complex loans. Mr. Johnson deals with mainly farmers today. He says that he likes his job because he meets many new people and does something different just about everyday. He feels that his job is very rewarding because he likes to help people. Mr. Johnson covers about 9-10 counties in West Tennessee, meaning that he travels quite a bit of the time. Mr. Johnson is very involved in the community. He stated that being involved in the community and being a well-rounded person is an important feature that employers are looking for today. He also stated that having actual work experience was the best learning tool for him, and he definitely encourages it. Mr. Johnson informed us to be careful with credit cards, as it can dramatically affect one's credit rating. Since he deals with credit everyday, he knows how bad credit can affect a person. If you would like more information on Farm Credit Services, you can visit the website at www.farmcredit.com.
February 9, 2005
Suzie Fenwick
VP Operations
Ferry-Morse Seed Company
Suzie Fenwick graduated in 1978 from South Fulton High School as valedictorian. She then came to school at UTM majoring in Ag business. After graduating in 1981 Suzie worked shortly for a transportation company. Soon she found a job working for Ferry-Morse Seed Company. Ferry-Morse is a local and international company owned by French. It is located in Fulton, Kentucky and sells packaged seeds to major retailers like Wal-Mart, Lowes, and Home Depot. Suzie soon realized that she was in a man's world. She disliked the fact that she had to work with almost all men and soon a different job offer came along with a company called Urago. Suzie traveled for Urago as an inventory control specialist; she also worked within the company as an order processing clerk. Soon she was asked to be the plant manager at Urago. There had never been a woman plant manager at Urago. Suzie Fenwick worked for Urago for fifteen years before the plant closed. The reason for the closing was that Urago was consolidating with another company. Soon Ferry-Morse was calling Suzie with a job offer as plant manager. Since accepting the job Suzie has been with Ferry-Morse for six years. Ferry-Morse has given her the chance to travel. Every year Ferry-Morse sends her to Europe for an annual company meeting. She has given advice to take any foreign language classes possible. She said “you can stay in tune with what’s going on.” Suzie Fenwick enjoys her job she is over all the plant operations. She enjoys working with people and has about one hundred and twenty employees working under her. Also, two new facilities have been opened in Fulton. The advice Suzie Fenwick has given is to always be comfortable with your job and find your style of management that works for you!
Chinnapong Saicholpitak
Mkt 376
Company Profile: Marvin Windows
Marvin Windows and
Door's home office is located in
Lauren Brannon
Executive in Residence
Dr. Johnston
March 9, 2005
Jennifer Hampton,
Sanofi-Aventis
Jennifer Hampton is a UTM graduate with a bachelor’s degree in Economics/Finance and a Master’s in Business Administration. She currently works as a sales representative for Sanofi-Aventis, and covers a large portion of the Northwest Tennessee area. Upon her graduation from college, she worked as a cost accountant at a manufacturing facility in Dyersburg. At the recommendation of a friend, she decided to interview for a position in pharmaceutical sales. She was hired by Ventive Health, a contract company. She worked there for over two years selling antibiotics. As a sales representative for Sanofi-Aventis, Ms. Hampton works in the diabetic division. On a typical day she schedules and sees between eight and twelve clients. She only gets a small amount of time with the physician so she must be on top of her game in order to be effective. Time management and responsibility are two of the keys to being successful in her profession.
Ms. Hampton left some advance for those interested in pursuing a pharmaceutical sales position. She emphasized the importance of networking and doing research on a prospective company. She suggested going to career fairs and searching websites such as monster.com, careerbuilder.com, and medzilla.com to gather information. She also suggested that your resume have something on it that stands out from the other applicants’. In her opinion, having sales experience, no matter what kind, is a definite plus. Ms. Hampton’s final piece of advice was to never be discouraged, and keep trying until you reach your goal.
Tiffany Rogers
Company Description
Sanofi-Aventis
Sanofi-Aventis is a pharmaceutical sales company with its corporate headquarters located in Strasbourg, France. It employs approximately 71,000 people in its core business. The company conducts its prescription drugs business in the U.S. as Aventis Pharmaceuticals Inc. Its headquarters are located in Bridgewater, New Jersey, where Gerald P. Belle is the president of the company. Aventis Pharmaceuticals Inc. has facilities located in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Puerto Rico, Canada, California, and Arizona. It has distribution centers in Georgia, Indiana, Missouri, and Nevada.
Aventis focuses on pharmaceutical products for important therapeutic areas such as oncology, cardiology/thrombosis, diabetes, respiratory/allergy, and osteoporosis, as well as on human vaccines. Its US products include, Actonel, Allegra, Allegra-D, Amaryl, Anzemet, Apidra, Arava, DDAVP, Lantus, Lovenox, Nasacort AQ, and Taxotere.
Brandon Luellen
Mr. David Hayes
Mr. David Hayes is the president and CEO of Security Bank in Dyersberg, TN. He is married. His wife’s name is Sarah Hayes. Mr. Hayes is a graduate of the University of Memphis. He is also the Chair of National Bank and Trade Association. He feels that his only restriction in life is his willingness to serve. He feels that if you are going to serve, then you need to have a vision, be committed, and be compassionate about what you are doing. In having a vision, he says that you should have a vision about both the past and the future. He feels that the younger generation is on the bride to the future. Whatever you do, don’t give up.
G.R. Baddour
Legens Hot Rod
Steve Legens of Legens Hot Rods In Martin, Tn got started in the Hot Rod business in his father-in-law’s tool shed in 1991. Prior to this he tinkered with cars with his father. Then his father bought him a car when he turned fourteen and that’s where it all started. He went on to college at Martin playing football and then went on to get a degree in the tool and dye industry. After this he got a job at MTD and worked on cars on his spare time in his father-in-law’s tool shed. At the time he had a ’40 Chevy that he built himself and went on to show it in car shows and then sold it. After this he quit his job at MTD in 1991 and started a hot rod business by himself. He stayed in his father-in-law’s tool shed running the business for eight years and then decided to move closer to town and build a bigger shop. He has now been there six years. The cars he builds take from 1 to 3 years. Most of his customers are out of state and he normally keeps about 8 –10 cars on his stop going at one time. He has a number of trucks and cars that have been shown in a few different magazines. Steve has also designed some hot rod parts himself such as the fuel filter containment kit that has won the product of the year. They do everything to the cars themselves such as painting, interiors, motors, chassis’s, etc. that they do all in house. The only thing they send out is chroming and polishing. The hourly rate at Legens Hot Rods is about $45 an hour.
James Baddour
Legens Hot Rod Shop
Steve Legens was 14 years old when he found out what he liked to do. Steve’s dad bought him his first car, and that is when Steve started fixing it up. When Steve finished high school he started working in tool and die at MTD for six years. Steve was working nights while working for MTD. Steve on his off time started fixing up a 40 chevy from scratch. People started finding out about this car and started bringing Steve other stuff to fix up a little bit. In 1991 Steve left tool and die at MTD. Then he started fixing up cars at his shop behind his house, 8 miles from town. He started out with 1 to 2 employees. Steve stayed out there for 8 years fixing up hot rod cars. Now he has built a shop about six years ago about one mile out of town with ten employees working for him. Steve and his crew have built a truck that made the cover of Hot Rod Magazine. Steve also had one other on the cover. In 2002 Steve designed a gas tank kit that won the Product of the Year. Now Steve and his crew go on all kinds of Hot Rod Shows.
Nick Marcy
Legens hot rod is in Martin, TN which was started by a man named Steve Legens who as a little boy discovered he had a gift of building, fixing, and even creating new styles and colors of cars. I was very impressed with the presentation he gave and the things that his team has accomplished in the past decade. The numbers that they sell their cars for are fanominal and the cars themselves are very impressive. Their 7200 sf. ft. consists of mant different machines and special rooms where the amazing team comes up with their ideas. Some of the things you will find in the shop is a metal shop, body shop, sand blast room, wet sand buffing bay, 6 car finish room, and a show room up front.
After the presentaion I am glad that I got to go eat with Steve and get into more detail about what he does. I felt like we had a few things in common as far as the machines he uses because of my back ground in a machine shop from when I was growing up in my dad's shop.
Shannon Drewry
Marketing 376
MTD Profile
April 6, 2005
MTD is a manufacturer of lawn and garden equipment. Dusty Gibson, Assistant HR Manager, and Keith Cursey, HR Manager, at MTD informed us about the company. Theo Mall founded MTD in Cleveland, TN in 1932. MTD came to Martin because Theo Mall visited a church in Martin and liked the friendly environment. Some of MTD’s principals are to act quickly, strive for continuous improvement, known as kaizen, to be innovative, and create new products. He started the company with four thousand five hundred dollars. They originally started as a tool and dye supplier to local manufacturing companies.
MTD’s slogan is “The past we inherit, the future we create.” They are a family owned private company. At MTD the employees are very important to the company. They do not lower wages to compete with foreign countries. They want their employees to be paid well. The biggest overseas competition for MTD is China where the employees are paid on average seventy-four cents and hour. In the United States they are paid and average of seventeen dollars and hour. MTD competes with China by using value added manufacturing. They look for ways to cut costs in the manufacturing process rather than pay low wages to employees.
MTD has global operations all over the world. Their company headquarters is in Valley City, OH. They started in the lawn and garden business by manufacturing push mowers. In 1975 they purchased the Yard Man brand of riding lawn mowers and in 2001 MTD purchased the Troy Built brand. The MTD facility at Martin opened in 1985. This facility employees nine hundred plus people and is in the process of enlargement. They have an annual payroll of twenty-two million. MTD also makes stamps for GE washers and driers.
From what I learned MTD strives to be number one. They take care of their employees. The employees of MTD like the company.
JJ Massengile
Mktg 376
Scott Couch grew up in