February 2024 – Page 3 – Sime Curkovic Ph.D.

The Food Marketing Conference is quickly approaching. It will be held March 26 – 27, 2024.

The Food Marketing Conference is quickly approaching. It will be held March 26 - 27, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sime-curkovic-61617a115_wmu-named-to-top-list-for-consumer-goods-activity-7165693947158147072-Dhgr?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop If you would like to attend, please complete your registration at the link below. I've attached the brochure so you can review the speakers and the full agenda. If you have any questions, please let me know. I hope you can attend! https://lnkd.in/gn4BHuZZ.Direct other questions to:Lisa YoutzyFood Marketing Program CoordinatorWestern Michigan University(269) 387-2132lisa.youtzy@wmich.edu11...

Here is my slide deck on Negotiation from the 1990s. I used to pack this into one class. Now, every WMU Supply Chain major has to take an entire course on Global Negotiation.

Here is my slide deck on Negotiation from the 1990s. I used to pack this into one class. Now, every WMU Supply Chain major has to take an entire course on Global Negotiation. Why? https://www.simecurkovic.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Negotiation101.pdf https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sime-curkovic-61617a115_students-go-into-buyer-roles-very-early-in-activity-7086749197923717121-HEAc?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop Industry asked us to. It is our fastest growing class. Thank you Dr. James Eckert! See his 1 page cheat sheet at the end of the slide deck. Note: my students go into “buyer” roles VERY early...

We are talking about this in class right now (along w/ Negotiation): “OEMs had an avg profit margin of 8.1% in the 1st quarter, more than 2% higher than auto suppliers…while suppliers stabilized between 5-6%…The challenge for suppliers is that they’re suffering from higher material & energy costs, which they can only partially pass on to OEMs.”

We are talking about this in class right now (along w/ Negotiation): “OEMs had an avg profit margin of 8.1% in the 1st quarter, more than 2% higher than auto suppliers…while suppliers stabilized between 5-6%...The challenge for suppliers is that they’re suffering from higher material & energy costs, which they can only partially pass on to OEMs.” https://lnkd.in/gY__BVRs https://www.bain.com/insights/automotive-profitability-how-oem-and-supplier-margins-are-faring-interactive/?utm_medium=social_advocacy&utm_source=LinkedIn-dysi&utm_content=8e152660-72ab-465b-b5f9-aa01a0fdeb2a&utm_term=169324 Almost 1/2 of U.S. employees do not feel confident in their...

I asked chatGPT how complicated is it for an international student college graduate in the U.S. to get a green card. It looks VERY cumbersome. I wish it was easier and perhaps even automatic.

Note, this is almost 3 years old, but…"The H-1B visa is highly competitive. In fiscal 2021, program applications hit 275,000, a 15-year high. The program follows a lottery system where 85,000 applicants are selected at random. Today, that means a given applicant has about a 30% chance of getting in." https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-data-behind-americas-h-1b-visa-program/ More Current: For the FY 2023 H-1B lottery season, USCIS received a total of 474, 421 eligible registrations. Given that a total of...

Success = Pick the right major (i.e., demand > supply) + Get work experience (i.e., internships related to major) + Pick the right first job (i.e., they pay a premium for your major because of supply/demand conditions and you are job ready day one because you have professional work experience).

Great read…Translation: Success = Pick the right major (i.e., demand > supply) + Get work experience (i.e., internships related to major) + Pick the right first job (i.e., they pay a premium for your major because of supply/demand conditions and you are job ready day one because you have professional work experience). Notice:“More than any other factor analyzed—including race, gender and choice of university—what a person studies determines their odds...

Note, we cover this in our CIS 4640 Business Data Mining class which is the capstone class in our Business Analytics minor. The forecast-driven idea is something that our CIS faculty have been selling to SCM students in this course.

Great read… https://hbr.org/2024/03/how-machine-learning-will-transform-supply-chain-management Note, we cover this in our CIS 4640 Business Data Mining class which is the capstone class in our Business Analytics minor. The forecast-driven idea is something that our CIS faculty have been selling to SCM students in this course. In fact, more than 70% of the class is about forecasting and predicting. We specifically talk about data quality treatment strategies to reduce forecasting/prediction errors. CIS 4640 -...

How to approach a new technology investment, based on what I have seen in software & professional services: For example:

Also: “Walmart deployed AI-powered negotiations software w/ a text-based interface (i.e., a chatbot) to connect w/ suppliers.” https://lnkd.in/gF5qT_im. “Walmart, like most organizations with large procurement operations, can’t possibly conduct focused negotiations with all of its 100,000-plus suppliers. As a result, around 20% of its suppliers have signed agreements with cookie-cutter terms that are often not negotiated. It’s not the optimal way to engage with these “tail-end suppliers.” But the cost of...

Should we teach Tableau or Power BI or both? In our CIS 3640 class we focus on three major areas: (1) Advanced excel functions, Power Query, Power Pivot , & Data Models, (2) Excel Macros, & (3) Visualization.

Should we teach Tableau or Power BI or both? In our CIS 3640 class we focus on three major areas: (1) Advanced excel functions, Power Query, Power Pivot , & Data Models, (2) Excel Macros, & (3) Visualization. https://lnkd.in/eqiqSMRb &https://lnkd.in/gXYSQKc7. We do our best to go in-depth in all these 3 areas. Based on the feedback received from students, they are interested in learning about all 3 areas & found them helpful...

In case you want to see what we cover in our AI course, a screenshot is shown in the comments section. We are expanding this list in spring. Our analytics faculty are on top of this AI wave. They have already built an AI course in our business college (CIS 5550) to cover all kinds of AI for business applications.

“American college students are behind in using AI in their studies compared to their foreign counterparts.”American college students lag behind in AI use, expert calls for perspective shift in educationAmerican college students are behind in using AI in their studies compared to their foreign counterparts.wwmt.com Maybe not…This is the whole reason that we created our new AI course — to create AI awareness and skills, and it is designed for...

The U.S. scores very high on avg pay/hour ($42.78), but also has one of the longer avg work weeks (34.83 hrs). WLB? My students are getting their full-time job offers. Most get 2 weeks paid vacation, some get 3 weeks, & very few get 4 (some do though!).

The U.S. scores very high on avg pay/hour ($42.78), but also has one of the longer avg work weeks (34.83 hrs). https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/hours-worked-vs-salaries-in-oecd-countries/ WLB? My students are getting their full-time job offers. Most get 2 weeks paid vacation, some get 3 weeks, & very few get 4 (some do though!). Some students ask me how many paid vacation days are employers “legally” req’d to give them? They are dismayed by the...