McCombs TODAY

On Sept. 17 Texas Executive Education hosted a symposium on business growth and how to build brand share overseas. Dave Wenger, director of communications for the McCombs School, blogged from the event, which featured panel discussions from McCombs faculty and industry experts.

A few highlights:

• On National Instruments’ long-term approach to business: “Traditionally we’ve had a lot of cash on hand, and were criticized by some on Wall Street for doing that,” said John Hanks, VP of industrial embedded marketing. “I can tell you that cash has been very helpful now.”
• “Feed the pipeline with interns and new hires, even in tough times. Identify the leaders of tomorrow, you can’t put that on idle just because times are tough.” -Advice on how to manage growth in a down economy from Emerson Process Management Chairman John Berra.
• “Recession can be a time of opportunity. Think about growing brands, channels and markets. There are supply side efficiencies, costs go down, so it is a time to think about investing.” -Associate Professor of Marketing Raji Srinivasan.
• “Regardless of where it comes from you will be facing new competitors from overseas. In the next 20 years China will be the largest economy in the world. India will be neck-and-neck with the U.S. for number two economy.” -Management Senior Lecturer John Doggett, on the changing global marketplace.

For a full review of the discussions, visit Dave’s blog IDUniversity.