Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) hosted a Global Trade Days roadshow event on October 14, 2013 at the Troy Marriott. The MEDC is encouraging businesses to engage in the export of Michigan based products into the foreign markets. MEDC featured speakers from 5 foreign markets, including Mexico, Canada, China, Brazil, and the United Arab Emirates. After each foreign market speaker presented to the group as a whole, the group then broke up into 5 different rooms with each room housing a different foreign market speaker. At that time, attendees had an opportunity to ask questions directed to the foreign market speaker of attendee's choosing. Towards the end, the group got back together as a whole and the Governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder, explained the benefits of exporting Michigan based product to global markets and took questions from the audience.

Attended by Detroit area business leaders and a couple of members of the Michigan Chapter of the Fulbright Association, the Global Trade Days program had several co-sponsors, including the State of Michigan and Grand Valley State University.

Can too many cooks in one kitchen create confusion? The world's finest restaurants usually have one head chef leading the way. What is leadership and why is it important? How does a leader encourage change without triggering fearful resistance? What are the key elements to leading an effective team? What is the role of charisma in leadership? How can a leader achieve work-life balance?

To address these questions and many more, United University Online offers a suite of courses. Based on D. Quinn Mills's book, Leadership: How to Lead, How to Live, a text used at Harvard Business School, the courses in this suite offer advice on leadership that can help you stand out as a leader among your peers. Video segments introduce Dr. Mills and other leaders who discuss such issues as how leaders become leaders, leadership ethics, and the differences between leaders, managers, and administrators.

To find out more about our leadership courses, click here.

Best Regards,

Jeffrey G. Nutt, J.D.

President

An essential characteristic of a successful businessperson is the ability to communicate. Superior businesspeople often look upon their staff with the expectation that successful employees with have clear and concise writing and speaking skills. They believe that in order to rise and compete within the business world, these communication tactics are not only useful, but also entirely necessary. When writing, business people find it useful to present information in a clear and pleasing way. Equally as important as the writing itself, the presentation of the information is necessary to impress and persuade any client or superior party. With the increasing demand for presentation skills, structuring a convincing PowerPoint that is well written and well presented could be a decisive factor for success in the business world.

At the Grand Opening of the Microsoft Store in the Somerset Collection in Troy, MI the United University team had the chance to meet the CEO of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, who hails from Michigan! The number of people that showed up for the Grand Opening Ceremonies filled up nearly half of the common area corridors on the second floor of the million square foot upscale mall. It was great to see people of all ages turn out, many wearing purple T-shirts given away by Microsoft to commemorate the occasion. While checking out the new store, we thanked Mr. Ballmer for returning to Michigan. This was only the second Grand Opening of a Microsoft store that he attended; the first being the opening near their corporate world headquarters in Washington State.

Also for the first time, Mr. Ballmer’s family joined him at the Detroit/Troy Grand Opening. The new store has the potential to have an extremely high volume of customer traffic. Its custom made video screen literally wraps around the interior surface of the exterior-wall of the entire store. The wall allows gaming customers to get the chance to fully test out a new game or just to have fun with the new technology at the state-of-the-art Somerset Collection store. Microsoft also celebrated the Grand Opening by announcing its gifts of more than $2 million in software grants to charities in the area.

New comers to the scene of managing may find themselves overwhelmed with responsibilities and challenges for which they are unqualified or unprepared to handle. The manager’s toolbox courses provide the knowledge needed to succeed in surmounting obstacles and becoming an adept managerial force. Throughout the course, the exercises and reading materials train new managers to adopt a mindset, which prepares them for the duties they will encounter in their new position. View the manger’s toolbox courses.

By Michael Bishop

Maximizing productivity is an obvious desire of any aspiring manager who wishes to run a successful business. This can be done by correctly managing a schedule such that no time spent will be detrimental to the end goal. Practically speaking, procrastination is the main adversary in successfully managing time. Steps to thwart procrastination are essential in creating a uniform time schedule that operates at a high level of productivity. If done correctly, it is possible to manage a system akin to this completely through delegation and distribution of duties throughout a staff of motivated employees. Meeting with staff and bringing to attention necessary tasks and possible road blocks is an example of beneficial time management activity that will help provide a productive environment in which to operate a successful business.

If you are interested in maximizing productivity we recommend you check out our Time Management course.