Episode 1 | Richard Blank | Communication and Culture

Richard Blank is the Chief Executive Officer for Costa Rica’s Call Cente...

The Feliciano School of Business at Montclair State University. A Costa Rica's Call Center visit. At the Feliciano School of Business, real-world business experience is a critical component of the students’ learning. The trip is intentionally designed with this goal in mind and a focus on addressing the five pillars of their program: • Inclusivity • Innovation • Impact • Immersive • Individual empowerment Driven by the single goal of transforming today’s students into tomorrow’s business leaders, the Feliciano School of Business has achieved a prominent place in the state and the larger region. Fully accredited by the AACSB, the School has over 3,800 students, and its six academic departments offer an array of degrees from a BS in Business Administration with 11 concentrations, to an MS in Accounting, to an MBA. Home to the Feliciano Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, the Ellyn A. McColgan Center for Student Services, and the 3D printing MIX Lab, the School offers state-of-the-art facilities and transformative learning opportunities for students. PROSPECTIVE TOPICS • Business of call centers and how to scale while competing against the likes of Amazon and HP • Keys to success in the service industry • Bridging the cultural differences [local workforce with global clients] • Leadership strategies for navigating uncertainty • Personal Reflections an ex-pat entrepreneur in Costa Rica" DATE AND TIME 16-May 3:00-4:30 ADDRESS Costa Rica's Call Center. Av 11, Calle 23, Barrio Aranjuez, San José, Costa Rica GENERAL THEMES Widening the Lens on Innovation - How are companies, countries and individuals driving growth through innovation ecosystem? How is the ecosystem leveraging industry convergence [R&D, technologies, AI, big data, work processes, and supply chains] to accelerate innovation, decarbonization, and next frontier industries? Is innovation typically internal, external, collaborative across different stakeholder groups? What have been successful pathways to commercialization? How has the ecosystem supported pathways to commercialization? How is systems thinking or design thinking used? Leading Through [Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity]: How are leaders driving organizational structures and leveraging culture to navigate disruption/transformation/crisis or seize an unexpected opportunity/innovate and what are some leadership strategies for pivoting during disruption. Using risk intelligence as a strategic planning tool and competitive advantage –What are future-facing approaches to assessing risks and opportunities [social, political, geopolitical, economic, environmental, or technological] Taking a systems and strategic approach to the United Nations SDGs – How are organizations leveraging creativity and innovation to solve challenges, ensure inclusiveness, align strategies with commitments, identify new growth opportunities and lower their risk profiles. Developing/aligning effective leadership styles that shift within different cultural or global contexts: How does culture influence leadership/communication styles; role of culture in talent attraction/retention; how do companies balance different offices and the respective country’s culture/leadership/communication styles? PROFESSORS Mr. Geoffrey Chellis • Professor of Experiential Learning • Board Member Montclair State University Advisory Board Geoff Chellis is also the President and founder of Expedia Consulting Group, a strategic marketing firm that helps corporate executives translate their business visions into results quickly. Geoff draws upon an MBA in Marketing at Northwestern University and 40 years of experience launching new business initiatives in the fast-paced worlds of pharmaceuticals and financial services. Through his consulting firm, Geoff has provided strategic guidance and management of over 100 new product launches at leading pharmaceutical firms such as Pfizer, Novartis and Lilly, along with numerous biotech startups. Previously Geoff has held senior Marketing positions at leading financial services firms such as American Express, Fidelity and JP Morgan. Geoff provides an objective point of view together with a simple and effective launch approach that expedite decisions, minimizes risk and maximizes results. He was featured as the “Launch Master” in the book The Change Maker’s Playbook by Amy J. Radin. Dr. Archana Kumar, Associate Professor of Marketing Archana Kumar is an Associate Professor of Marketing, teaching Introduction to Marketing and Retail Marketing and Management. Her principles areas of research are in consumer behavior, apparel retailing, branding strategies, electronic and mobile commerce shopping behavior and cross-cultural consumer behavior. Dr. Kumar research has been published in several referred journals including the Journal of Services Marketing, International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management and the Journal of Business Research. She is also the recipient of the 2007 Emerald Research Fund Award for Indian Management Research. Dr. Kumar is a member of the American Collegiate and Retailing Association (ACRA) and Marketing Management Association (MMA). Dr. Kumar has a PhD in Retail and Consumer Services and M.S. in Statistics from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She also has a M.S. in Integrated Textile and Apparel Science from Auburn University. Delegation Michelle Burri Arredondo Valeria Maya Matthew Varaklis Tyree Morris Trinity Corney Jayme Herman Erin Murphy Tun Yu Lam Abbie Lepow-Macario Nabihah Nadir Geoffrey Chellis Kayla Coleman-Yarborough Thomas Bansbach Devon Bishop Ishan Gune Amaris Williams Haeyoon Lee Archana Kumar Symar Camero Doona Chellis The Feliciano School of Business at Montclair State University offers a variety of programs for our students to study abroad with. Whether this is a short-term Faculty-Led program that allows a student to integrate a study abroad experience into their semester or a semester-long exchange at another institution overseas, we believe that Studying Abroad allows students a crucial opportunity to gain insights to our ever-changing world. These programs come at a variety of price points that make studying abroad more accessible to students. Depending on which program type you are interested in, students are eligible to utilize loans and grants that are typically applied to their semesters at Montclair State University. In our exchange programs, that means that you can attend a foreign institution for the same price as a semester at Montclair State University. In terms of our faculty-led programs, students can expect to pay a few thousand dollars for an immersive and highly guided experience in a country overseas with their classmates and professors. In addition, we offer a variety of scholarships and guidance to apply for additional scholarships that are federal, diversity-based, region specific, and so much more. Because of this, we encourage students to connect with Study Abroad advisors to discuss a course of action for affordability. The Feliciano School of Business at Montclair State University offers a rigorous and competitive MBA program that allows you to stand out in the market through the skills you gain in your program. One of the cornerstones of the MBA program is our integration of study abroad into your coursework to ensure that you are a standout amongst competitors in the workplace. This study abroad experience is included in the cost of your tuition and allows students to integrate their business skills directly into the world through hands-on engagements with businesses, charities, and organizations in different countries each year. This mandatory portion of the MBA programs allow students to experience cultural activities in the destination that they are visiting, to utilize their skills to help those who are less fortunate, allows practical applications of information learned in the classroom to global businesses, and lastly, students to gain insights of large corporations and how they function in different markets than the United States. https://www.montclair.edu/business/ Richard’s vision quest journey is filled with twists and turns. When he was 27 years old, he relocated to Costa Rica to train employees for one of the larger call centers in San Jose. With a mix of motivational public speaking style backed by tactful and appropriate rhetoric, Richard shared his knowledge and trained over 10 000 bilingual telemarketers. Richard Blank has the largest collection of restored American Pinball machines and antique Rockola Jukeboxes in Central America making gamification a strong part of CCC culture.Richard Blank is the Chief Executive Officer for Costa Rica’s Call Center since 2008. Mr. Richard Blank holds a bachelors degree in Communication and Spanish from the University of Arizona and a certificate of language proficiency from the University of Sevilla, Spain. A Keynote speaker for Philadelphia's Abington High School 68th National Honors Society induction ceremony. In addition, inducted into the 2023 Hall of Fame for Business. Giving back to Abington Senior High School is very important to Mr. Blank. As such, he endows a scholarship each year for students that plan on majoring in a world language at the university level. https://youtu.be/prcJZJnTm28 #RichardBlank #CostaRica #CallCenter #Outsourcing #Telemarketing #BPO #Sales #Entrepreneur #B2B #Business #Podcast #Leadgeneration #MontclairStateUniversity #Feliciano SchoolofBusiness