Archive for May, 2010
May
28
Summer solstice is not upon us yet (June 21st this year), but the campus has switched into full summer mode (including the library). Be sure to make note of our summer hours:
Regular Schedule
Monday – Thursday 08:15 am – 9:45 pm
Friday 08:15 am – 04:45 pm
Saturday Closed
Sunday 1:15pm – 9:45 pm
Interlude Schedule
Monday – Thursday 08:15 am – 09:45 pm
Friday 08:15 am – 04:45 pm
Saturday and Sunday Closed
See the Printable Version for the complete summer schedule, including holiday hours and information.
May
18
Congratulations to the class of 2010!
You are off on a fantastical journey! Along the way, if you need to do a bit of research, CLU offers two databases to alumni. Access the two databases using your CLU username and password. Links to the databases can be found on the CLU Alumni Benefits webpage.
Academic Search Alumni Edition: Multidisciplinary where you will find something on any topic. Lots of full-text articles from a variety of sources, including scholarly or peer reviewed journals.
Business Source Alumni Edition: The place to find business-related information. Includes full-text articles, and scholarly or peer-reviewed articles.
Have questions? Contact Alumni Relations or the Pearson Library.
May
7
Are you planning to spend some long hours at the Pearson Library during finals week? Look for the break station near the library entrance and grab a cup of coffee, tea or hot chocolate for a quick refresher. You are also free to consume your beverage at your favorite study station. For your convenience, the refreshments station will be available Saturday – Thursday until 9 pm. During Final Exams Week (May 10 – 12), the library will be open from 08:15 am – 12:45 am.
Credit: Microsoft Clip Art
May
4
Photo by Henri Mondschein
“Help!” “I need to find articles about Apple’s corporate initiatives and how these are impacting their organizational structure. I searched ‘Apple’ AND ‘initiatives’ AND ‘organizational structure’ but can’t get anything relevant!”
This is a common question (and moan!) from business students taking their first stab at analyzing a company. The short answer is that you probably won’t find much using broad keywords because “organizational structure” and “initiatives” are just too general. And it’s quite rare that you’ll find that perfect Harvard Business Review paper with a title like: “A Theoretical Synthesis of Apple Inc.’s Corporate Initiatives and their Impact on Organizational Structure.”
Company research requires a lot of “reading between the lines.” This means using your analytical skills to unearth specific examples of a company’s initiatives or actions that you would conclude might impact the company’s bottom line or corporate structure. For example, seek articles discussing new executive appointments. Is there a new VP of Marketing with big plans for revamping the company’s image? Did they create any new divisions? Are there company changes—in the case of Apple–new production plants, marketing initiatives with release of the wildly popular iPad now surpassing 1 million sales? Here is an example of such an article in Business Source Premier using “apple” (CO Company Entity field) AND keyword “appointment”:
Apple recruits key talent to lead drive into mobile ad sales.
Besides articles, the SWOT analyses in the Datamonitor company reports (found in Business Source Premier) are another good source for insight on a company’s organizational structure and direction.
–Henri Mondschein
mondsche@callutheran.edu