#StromeStrong – More than a Hashtag
Stronger together - a phrase that has taken on special meaning in the COVID crisis. Because your Strome College of Business has become a key regional partner over the past five years, our faculty have become the go-to for data on the economy, insight for supply chain disruptions/ solutions, and leadership support.
Dean Tanner serves on the 757 Recovery task force, a group comprised of the heads of the Hampton Roads Economic Development Alliance (HREDA), Hampton Roads and Peninsula Chambers, Hampton Roads and Peninsula Workforce Councils, and other regional economic entities. The task force has conducted two waves of a business conditions surveys, with support from professors Vinod Agarwal and Bob McNab of the Strome's Dragas Center for Economic Analysis and Policy. You can see the survey results and the other work of the task force at www.757Recovery.com.
As Congress wrestled with the CARES Act, the Federal delegation called repeatedly on Strome faculty, especially Dean Tanner, Dr. Agarwal, and Dr. McNab, as well as Dr. Ron Carlee, for data and insight. Dr. Carlee is an expert in municipal government operations and provided Senator Warner's office with a position paper that contained many proposals that were subsequently part of the legislation.
Why is milk being poured out and vegetables plowed under? Professors Erika Marsillac and Terri Kirchner, experts in supply chain and business continuity, published a column explaining this phenomenon in the Virginian Pilot. They also appeared in a podcast on the Recovery Forum, which you can listen to at the website above.
Now that governments are trying to reopen economies, how will businesses recover? The Strome College of Business is deeply engaged in providing answers. Dr. Carlee is coordinating Strome's participation in the regional recovery planning project, along with Drs. McNab, Marsillac, and Ricardo Ungo (from the Maritime program). The project is funded jointly by the Dwight Schaubach Applied Entrepreneurship Fellowship endowment in Strome and a $100,000 grant from Go Virginia.
Additionally, those same faculty, along with Dr. Walter D'Lima (real estate) and Professor Andrew Cohen (finance), are working with HREDA to develop a regional competitiveness strategy to attract and retain businesses, post-COVID. The Hampton Roads region offers a strong workforce, excellent healthcare, and low operating costs, all competitive advantages for companies willing to consider distributed workforces.
Strome's contributions will not be limited to faculty experiences, though. Students will be involved in the research and strategy-development projects. Faculty have also added client projects to as many classes as possible in order to support businesses and non-profits. In addition to the annual marketing competitions in digital marketing and marketing campaigns courses, faculty will include projects on strategy, PR, IT, and other areas. Summer 2020's MBA consulting class has grown from one client to four.
No one wants a crisis. But it is rewarding to see how Strome Strong has become more than a hashtag, particularly as our faculty and students work hand in hand to restore our economy. We're stronger together.
