Cindy Dunne, Director: Brock University Co-op Programs - Interview

Director of Co-op Education at Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, was kind enough to take the time to answer a few questions about the Co-op Education Programs at Brock University. Cindy Dunne describes the value and importance of co-op educational opportunities for both students and employers. She shares information on how Baby Boomer executives can get involved in the co-op educational process through hiring graduates, mentorship programs, and recruitment.

Thanks to Cindy Dunne for her time, and for her very comprehensive and informative responses. They are greatly appreciated.

You are director of Co-op Education at Brock University. What is a co-op program and how does it work?

Cindy Dunne: Co-op education offers a valuable opportunity for students to enhance their education by acquiring career-related work experience before graduation. Students gain practical experience, develop a network of contacts, and obtain a better understanding of careers in their field. Co-operative education is an academic program with alternating periods of work experience. The student is engaged in academically relevant and meaningful work.

How does a co-op program differ from an internship?

Cindy Dunne: Internship means many different things to different institutions. Some institutions define an internship as an extended period of employment (8-16 months) that may be paid or unpaid, while another institution might define an internship as an unpaid placement that may be part-time in nature and awarded academic credit. Co-op on the other hand has a very specific and commonly referred to definition as stated by the Canadian Association for Co-operative Education:

Direct from CAFCE website:

"Co-operative Education Program means a program which alternates periods of academic study with periods of work experience in appropriate fields of business, industry, government, social services and the professions in accordance with the following criteria:

(i) each work situation is developed and/or approved by the co-operative educational institution as a suitable learning situation;

(ii) the co-operative student is engaged in productive work rather than merely observing;

(iii) the co-operative student receives remuneration for the work performed;

(iv) the co-operative student's progress on the job is monitored by the co-operative educational institution;

(v) the co-operative student's performance on the job is supervised and evaluated by the student's co-operative employer;

(vi) the time spent in periods of work experience must be at least thirty per cent of the time spent in academic study.”
Source: CAFCE 2007

You describe co-op programs as an employment strategy for business. What do you mean by that?

Cindy Dunne: Attracting and selecting the right person for the job is a critical activity. With fewer and fewer hires being made, recruiting the right person with the skills and competencies required is taking on greater importance within corporations. Assuming an organization has identified key positions within the organization upon which they rely, a sophisticated talent acquisition strategy involves a pipeline approach.

Co-op students provide relief for short-term peaks in workload, or special projects and research; hiring a co-op student is a cost-effective and low-risk means of recruiting and evaluating potential permanent hires. With the looming wave of retirements anticipated in the private and public sector, hiring students is critical to securing employees for the future and cultivating their knowledge of the business.

While many companies have scaled back, or completely eliminated their on-campus recruiting efforts, savvy organizations recognize that maintaining a campus presence in light of reduced competition allows them access to the best and brightest talent available from the student population. Maintaining a campus presence and hiring co-op students when full-time hiring is restricted allows companies the opportunities to build their company brand and position themselves as an employer of choice.

Recruiting directly from University or College programs for specific skills and/or technical training is a very effective in acquiring talent trained in the newest concepts, theories and state of the art technologies. Companies benefit by participating in on-campus recruitment by avoiding the expenditures related to costly advertisements and search firm fees.



How can a co-op program assist Baby Boomer executives nearing retirement with their business succession plans?

Cindy Dunne: The anticipated retirements of the Baby Boom generation requires managers and executives to think about planned exits from the organization and having a ready successor to fill key vacancies within. Typically, those vacancies are filled by internal candidates in an organization, but many organizations have scaled back hiring over the past number of years, reduced spending on skills training and now find themselves facing a shortage of skilled labour within their companies.

Co-op students provide the strategic pipeline of skilled labour needed to address deficiencies in the future. It is well documented that employers providing meaningful employment and learning experiences for students are likely to retain student hires for permanent positions in the future. In fact, 97% of co-op students at Brock return to a previous co-op employer for full-time employment upon graduation.

Taking the time to identify key positions within the organization, and developing the competencies in junior staff to build the organizations skill portfolio is a strategic investment in the sustainability of the organization.

Is there a demand for students who are in or completing a co-op program?

Cindy Dunne: Despite the economic downturn and apparent decline in permanent hires, co-op programs at Brock University continue to be a source of short term hires for many organizations. Innovative and progressive organizations rely upon advanced training provided by post-secondary institutions. Organizations are waking up to the realization that reactive recruiting is no longer an option and that finding qualified candidates is difficult.

Strategic recruiters and managers know that building business and technical competence is a business necessity; they are more concerned with building organization readiness and capacity and less so with finding applicants. As stated previously, organizations recruiting co-op students make an investment in the students’ training, mentorship, organization knowledge and technical skills with an eye toward long term hiring. 97% of co-op students at Brock return to a previous co-op employer for permanent hire following graduation.

Temporary leaves, vacation, retirements, budget cuts, and peaks in work load leave organizations short staffed and challenged to meet company business goals. Resourceful managers find temporary support using co-op students to handle more complex tasks. Employers can use co-op students to fill labour needs with or without a long-term commitment.

How can Baby Boomer business leaders invest in a co-op program for the benefit of both the student and their entire organization?

Cindy Dunne: An effective mentoring relationship is necessary for all parties to benefit from a co-op experience. We want the experience of hiring a Brock Co-op student to be as productive as possible and to ensure maximum contribution. Mentorship can be undertaken by both experienced and inexperienced co-op employers and our Co-op Office assists mangers by providing checklists, orientation suggestions, ideas for work term assignments, performance management tools and much more.

Co-op students require some direction and leadership. The general principle of a co-op placement is to provide the student with meaningful experience which they can learn from and apply to their studies while he/she provides substantial contributions to the business. The whole work term is a continual learning process, and as such, there are rather obvious, but essential roles to be filled in a co-op placement. While the specific role of the student may be different for every assignment, their general role is to fulfill a need in the workplace and perform to a set standard of productivity.

In the beginning, an organization will provide the Co-op Office with a job posting which we can distribute to our co-op students. The posting describes the type of work along with the competencies and attributes being sought in a new hire. After the posting has been received, it will be put up on our job posting board and distributed to our students. Students will be instructed to apply internally to our website or directly to a company website.

Upon receiving the resumes, recruiters/managers will then select those candidates whom they wish to interview. Our Co-op staff will assist with making all interview arrangements to suit organization needs and availability. Once the interviews have been completed, the company contact will inform the Co-op Office of which student(s) to extend offers of employment.

With so many companies competing for similar skills, our best and brightest often enjoy multiple offers of employment. Students will work for a 16 week (extended work terms are available), paid work term. The work terms begin at the start of May, September or January.

The benefits for the students will be learning on the job and developing meaningful experience which they can relate back to their academic studies. The benefits to the employer include a year-round access to a pool of qualified and creative business students, recruitment and strategy support, and government wage and subsidy programs just to name a few.

Where does Brock University rank in relation to other Canadian universities in offering co-op programs?

Cindy Dunne: Brock offers a wide variety of co-op program offerings; 32 to be exact. Students are available in business, accounting; full range of sciences; liberal arts; and social sciences (undergraduate and graduate level programs). Approximately 2600 students participate in a co-op option of a degree program at Brock positioning us as one of the largest co-op institutions in Ontario and nationally. In addition, we offer Canada’s largest Business Co-op Program.

What is next for Cindy Dunne and for the Brock University Co-op Program?

Cindy Dunne: It is a University wide plan to work locally to grow employment opportunities in Niagara. The Niagara Region is a beautiful place to live, work and play, and as we transition from a primarily manufacturing based community to a knowledge based economy, I believe Brock University plays a pivotal role in building talent capacity for the jobs of the future in Niagara. Brock is a beacon of innovation for the Niagara Region and our students are inspired by relevant and current programs of study; top notch research facilities; and engaged and informed faculty.

Tags: Brock University Co-op Programs, Cindy Dunne, marketing studies, Brock University Faculty of Business, business interviews

Antonia Mantonakis: Perception Of A Winery Name - Interview

Antonia Mantonakis, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Marketing at Brock University Faculty of Business, was kind enough to take the time to answer a few questions about a recent study she conducted about how consumers perceive the quality of a winery and its products, based on the name of the winery.

Antonia Mantonakis described the background to the study, its methodology, and some of the findings from that study.

Thanks to Antonia Mantonakis for her time, and for the responses to the questions. They are greatly appreciated.

What was the background this study to discover whether or not the name of a winery had any effect on people’s perception of its quality?

Antonia Mantonakis: This is a popular topic in consumer research: How does the ease with which something is thought of related to how much consumers like it?



Antonia Mantonakis, Ph.D. (photo left)

What methodology did you employ for the study to measure people's perceptions?

Antonia Mantonakis: We had people read the name of a winery -- either an easy to pronounce winery name (Titakis) or a difficult to pronounce winery name (Tselepou) -- associated with a wine. Participated then evaluated their perception of the taste of the wine.

What real surprises arose from the study and its results that no one was really expecting?

Antonia Mantonakis: Well we did hypothesize that the wine associated with the more difficult-to-pronounce winery name would be associated with higher evaluations. The reason for this is that consumers tend to place a higher value on things that are rare, and this is especially the case for wine. So, we expected that a wine with a more difficult sounding name might be perceived to be superior.

Why should business people be especially concerned about their company and product names and the perceptions they carry with them?

Antonia Mantonakis: Well we have to keep in mind that this is just one study, and we used only winery names.. so any other brand would need to be examined experimentally, compared to a relatively fluent (or disfluent) name comparative name, in order to determine the boundary conditions of this finding.

What is first step a business decision maker should take toward ensuring their company name offers a good perception with their potential customers?

Antonia Mantonakis: What I would suggest is running a simple experiment! Test out different names, and see what consumers' perceptions are about those names.

What is next for Antonia Mantonakis?

Antonia Mantonakis: My research will continue to focus on these types of incidental factors that can affect a consumer's evaluation of a product or a brand.. It really is a fun and exciting part of my job as a professor at Brock University!

Tags: Perception Of A Winery Name, Antonia Mantonakis, Ph.D., marketing studies, Brock University Faculty of Business, business interviews

Norman Birnbach: Media Trends 2012 - Interview

Public relations and media expert Norman Birnbach, President of Birnbach Communications, Inc., was kind enough to take the time to discuss media trends in 2012. He describes what is happening with television, newspapers, ebooks, publishing, and online media. He also shares a few surprising trends that will be appearing in 2012 as well. Norman also blogs at the popular and highly regarded public relations blog PR Back Talk.

Thanks to Norman Birnbach for his time, and for his intriguing forecasts in the fascinating fields of media and technology.

What was the background to creating the Top Tech, Business, Media Trends for 2012 Predictions report?

Norman Birnbach: Each year for the past 10 years, we've helped our clients develop their communications plans by identifying the trends we think will be important for the coming year. The idea is that clients have certain internal news and milestones and we try to connect those to larger trends that reporters, bloggers and others will be writing about. By putting clients' news into the context of business trends can help anticipate and generate coverage.

One of your findings was the desire to be connected around the clock 24/7 may change in 2012. Why do you say that?

Norman Birnbach: A while back, only the very wealthy could afford to be connected wherever they went – equipped with satellite phones while exploring the most remote locales. These days, teenagers are texting round the clock – or that’s what it feels like to their parents. The fact is we almost never have downtime anymore – I remember hearing a buzzing of someone’s smartphone while attending a funeral. And people are beginning to notice that’s not all good.

Being connected leads to the probability of being distracted on a 24/7 basis. We feel it’s so important to respond that some people text while driving or answer their smartphones while hiking. This lack of downtime may negatively impact our ability to concentrate and avoid distractions at work and at home. And being connected 24/7 isn’t making us happier. Even as we spend more time connecting to people via Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest, we’re spending less time in person with people we care about.

Already a handful of companies have limited corporate email, both during the day and after hours – and we think more will join those ranks. We also think the concept of going on vacation without access to email or cell will become more of a status symbol because it now takes a lot of money to disconnect yourself from your regular workday.

You point out that more people may get rid of cable television. Why will more people cut the cord on cable?

Norman Birnbach: The cost of cable continues to increase, even though Congress passed a bill nearly 20 years ago to keep cable fees in line. The cost that content producers charge continues to climb -- to the extent that even cable operators, who pass along those costs to subscribers, are complaining. Part of the increase is from sports programming like ESPN. And part of the dissatisfaction is that subscribers can pay $1,200 per year to get cable service and still feel like there's nothing on that they want to watch. At the same time, we have new technologies available that provide for the first time alternatives to cable.

Amazon Prime, Hulu.com, Netflix and other new services are popping up offering television shows and movies at a cost that severely undercuts cable or satellite. One problem we've seen is that the experience is not seamless or easy yet. It still takes subscriptions to several different services along with several hardware purchase to give you access to content -- and you won't be able to get all that you may want, like local stations, or all current episodes of a show you want, etc. Still, consumers have a choice, a chance to cut the cable and avoid paying for what they don't want.



Norman Birnbach (photo left)

Media has been converging for at least a decade. Will that trend continue and in what ways?

Norman Birnbach: Yes it will. When you look at how the media – newspapers, TV news and radio – are adjusting to the Internet and to distributing their content via apps, it’s clear the lines among the media has blurred. It’s not just that more people access newspapers online without smudging their fingers with newsprint. It’s that newspaper reporters are more likely than ever to prepare video reports for the newspaper’s website and apps. And TV and radio reporters – who, the joke went, once only needed to know how to pronounce words, not spell them – are now typing up text articles to accompany their video, also available on their websites and apps.

And, of course, they’re all tweeting and blogging about the news they’re covering. So yes, expect more media convergence to the point that the specific media will stop being defined by the device on which we used to consume them. We’re no longer “taping” a “TV program” to watch later anymore because we’re not using tape of any kind – we’re recording it onto a DVR or downloading a show and watching it on a tablet.

E-books are the fastest growing segment in publishing. How will e-books evolve to maintain that growth momentum?

Norman Birnbach: E-books will evolve as the technology allows them to do more things – it has to do with convergence again. Already some publishers are working on combining video and other interactive features into their e-books to provide more value. With the growing capabilities of e-readers like the Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble’s Nook as well as iBook on the iPad, expect e-textbooks to include interactive exercises, and nonfiction e-books to include more video, photos, and audio. We also expect that fiction books will come packed with featurettes much the way DVDs are packaged, with video interviews with the author and interactive guides for book clubs.

We keep hearing dire forecasts that the press release is dead. Is that indeed the case?

Norman Birnbach: Not at all - the press release is alive and well, despite dire predictions to the contrary. It seems like everyday a different blogger gleefully declares something else has died -- PowerPoints, emails, in-person meetings, for example -- and most of those have been wrong. They may be imperfect, but we still use all those tools, including press releases, because they get the job done even as new forms for meeting and collaborating rise up. A lot of those new tools are imperfect, too, by the way, and need to evolve. I think we'll continue to see the press release evolve, but it won't die in the near term.

The reasons press releases continue to be useful is that, even in an age of social media and news by Tweets, press releases still provide more detail than tweets with a 140 characters can. Press releases are important also from an SEO perspective because new content on your website raises your site in searches. And new press releases also show that a company is still alive and active.

How will social media grow in relation to business to business or B2B marketing?

Norman Birnbach: We're seeing B2B clients -- who would have not even considered social media 18 months ago -- to be either seriously considering social media or already actively engaging in social media, via blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. That said, they are not focusing on Facebook to reach their customers.

B2B companies will recognize the need to generate their own multimedia content, and that there are active and engaged business consumers even for niche sectors. We expect that more B2B companies will consider increasing budgets to make engaging their targets through social media, thought leadership and lead generation their top marketing priorities. For example, one of our clients develops and sells an enterprise accounting software, which is as afar from a consumer product as you might imagine. But together we realized they had a lot of great content and insight, and that we couldn't just rely on traditional media to get out that information; so we helped them launch a blog and several Twitter feeds. The response has been tremendous inside and out.

Inside the company, the staff feels proud about the caliber of the content on the corporate blog. As the smallest part of a global conglomerate, our client is getting recognition as the social media leader among all of the company's geographies (including much larger country teams). Further, and more significantly, the client is engendering conversations with customers, influencers and prospects, raising awareness and generating leads.

What is the biggest surprise to most people that you are forecasting this year?

Norman Birnbach: People seem most surprised by the acknowledgement that more connectivity isn’t always good, that we need to take a break, and interact with the people around us. We’re not saying going off the grid, without electricity, is going to be mainstream. But we do think people are burning out from years of always being connected, and when we do talk to people about that, there’s an instant recognition from most people that it would be nice, every once in a while to be able to leave their homes without making sure they have their phone with them.

How have the trends for 2012 built on previous predictions to enhance them?

Norman Birnbach: There are several trends from 2011 that will continue to be significant this year, most of them connected.

· Cloud computing, which actually began in 2010, continues to go mainstream, driven by the need to access your data – content, files, music, etc. – no matter where you are and no matter what device you are using at that moment. There are times when you need to work on a document while standing in line and you need to pick up where you left off when you get back to your PC, for example – and cloud computing makes that happen without having to carry flash drives.

· The post-PC world – or the rise of the tablets. Again, this is a trend that began in 2010. The launch of the iPad has led to the post-PC concept – and to the ongoing battle of tablets. The first round went to the iPad, but so-called iPad Killers have not given up. Competitors still want to get into the action and capture some of the market share. From the media's perspective, it's a two-horse race between the Kindle Fire and iPad. We expect a third option to gain some traction, but the iPad will continue to dominate.

· Mobile, mobile, mobile – arguably the three most important tech trends in 2012, which of course began a year or two ago. People expect to be able to work and access information anywhere on any device (see cloud computing and the post-PC world). We expect to see more consumers adopt cashless payments, using their smartphones to pay for products and services.

· Social, social, social – also arguably the three most important tech trends this year. These days, it seems like everything you do can now be shared online. What you watch, what you read, what you listen to, what websites you visit – these can all easily be shared. But the impact of social goes beyond personal use. Enterprise technology is now informed by social media; we’re advising even our most serious B2B clients that their applications now need not only to have intuitive interfaces, they also must be accessible on iPads.

Which of your 2011 predictions was either too early or a bit off target?

Norman Birnbach: We overstated 2011 as being the Year of the app-based media subscription. We thought the ability to subscribe to a publication via an app versus the print edition would get more attention from the media and social media worlds because publishers still need to find a way to generate revenue from producing online and app-based content. There were some pricing battles between Apple and a few magazine and book publishers. And there are still a number of publications selling app-based subscriptions for a higher price than print subscriptions to the same publications.

And then there are some outlets that provide free online apps to print subscribers. There’s no consistent model, and we thought 2011 would bring clarity to subscription models and pricing, but I think we were too early on this one, but I don’t think we’re wrong about the need for some consistency in how publishers handle app-based subscriptions.

What is next for Norman Birnbach and Birnbach Communications in 2012?

Norman Birnbach: I’m looking forward to the possibility of cutting the cable cord this year, and to the possibility of actively breaking free from 24/7 connectivity. I think we all need some downtime and to reduce distractions that are rampant on our smartphones and tablets. From a business perspective, we love helping our clients take advantage of our insights and trends-spotting to accomplish their communications objectives – as well as to develop new services based on those insights and trends.

We developed new multimedia services in Q4 last year, and have some exciting case studies to offer up this year. So we expect to continue to evolve our practice and to help guide our clients as they navigate the converging media and social media worlds.

Tags: Norman Birnbach, Birnbach Communications, Inc, 2012 Media Trends Report, interviews