Blackout in America s6

TABLE OF CONTENTS Fashion, Fashion Everywhere and Nothing to Wear (Fashion Case)

Introduction

In the last fifty years the world has changed drastically. The conversion of three different related technologies has changed world events and world environments. The integration of communication technology, computer technology, satellite technology and space technology has made the world much smaller. The ability to transmit voice, data, visualization, graphics and the written word at phenomenal speeds across the world has made communications available to the world by the click of a mouse or by the sound of the voice. With the use of holograms almost imminent, we can be in several places at the same time. With our current air technology, we can be at anyplace in the world in a few hours. With space technology at our fingertips we will soon be able to be anyplace in the world in a matter of minutes. Time and space, in our world, has been condensed. Whether we step off of a plane in a foreign nation in preparation for taking our seat at a table to negotiate a contract, or whether we are there via hologram, may make little difference in the future. In any event, we are likely to be interacting with many different people from many different nations, value systems, culture and religion. All groups will bring a different set of values and beliefs to the table for discussion. We live in a world of transition, but yet global in nature. No country is likely to exist over a long period of time without interplay with its neighbors, and yet with all or most countries of the world we have become dependent on each other. As the saying goes, “no man is and island unto himself,” as no nation is a country unto itself. Thus, we must develop ways to live together in a global environment.

How can we begin the process to develop person-to-person relationships and country-to- country relationships? How can we learn to live together in a peaceful, supportive environment? It is likely to be impossible in the future, if not already, for nations to survive without globalization. Thus, how can we live in this world and share a common set of values that transcend many cultures and belief systems? How can a world trade system develop on trust and mutual respect nation-to-nation and person-to-person? Or, do we face a world situation where this cannot occur? Is it impossible for the major religions of the world, such as Christianity, Judaism and Islam to exist in a free, independent, democratic world? To some extent, the Gulf War was fought over these issues, as well as the current Iraq War. So, where can we start to develop an understanding of a cross- disciplinary, cross-national environment? Perhaps we could start with the field of fashion. No matter what national origin you are from, fashion plays a major role in your life. To a major extent, fashion shapes our lives and determines what others think about us. Cultural differences in fashion even sometimes dictate how we respond to a crisis. While some citizens wanted to respond to the recent Tsunami disasters in India by sending clothes, crisis relief organizers reminded United States citizens that some fashion would be both costly and culturally inappropriate to send. In the United States, we have companies such as Liz Claiborne, Brooks Brothers, Men’s Wearhouse, Eddie Bauer, and other companies that play a major role in how we look and in how other nations perceive us. Other nations, especially the Italians and French, also play a major role in developing clothing and accessory designs.

In the automobile industry, we see very creative designs coming from the Japanese automobile market, as well as the German market. The Germans have long been known as developing one of the most quality automobiles in the world, while the Japanese have been able to design new and interesting models to penetrate the United States automobile market. This is an industry in which fashion has partnered for years. Eddie Bauer, Bill Blass, Coach and others, line automobile interiors to add prestige.

The design of the aircraft industry has resided primarily in the United States, with the Boeing Aircraft Company. Over the years, they have made some of the most successful aircraft in the country and have designed features related to safety and comfort. Emilio Pucci, with his Braniff Airlines hostess uniforms designs, is an example of unlikely partnerships between seemingly unrelated industries.

Other nations have given us interesting fashion design, especially from the Hispanic market in Mexico and Central and South America, where some of the most beautiful people in the world bask in the sunshine of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in comparison to the Far Eastern countries where fashion and design take a totally different approach.

Learning Vignette -- Fashion, Fashion Everywhere, and Nothing to Wear

Professor John Smith, an internationally known scholar in humor, creativity and entrepreneurship, stepped into the cabin of American Airlines 4292 in Chicago, Illinois. Professor Smith immediately proceeded to his assigned seat, 10D. Professor Smith placed his carry-on luggage in the overhead bin above seat 10D. (Professor Smith had learned from his world travels that if you could not fly first class, that seat 10D was a bulkhead seat and was very comfortable.) Immediately upon being seated, Professor Smith turned on his laptop computer, his PDA and his cell phone. Professor Smith wanted to be connected with the world until the last minute permitted on this flight. Professor Smith began to read a dissertation from one of his doctoral students about entrepreneurship education. Professor Smith was en route from Chicago O’Hare to Rome, Italy, to present a paper entitled “Humor, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship Learning Environments” at the 14th Conference of the International Society for Humor Studies in Bertinoro, Italy. Professor Smith is making some last minute suggestions for his doctoral student’s dissertation when the passenger seated next to him took her seat.

Soon thereafter, the airline attendant made the famous announcement. “In preparation for Flight 4292, it is mandatory for you to shut down all electronic devices, including laptop computers, PDAs and cell phones. Professor Smith reluctantly cut his electronic devices off and immediately fastened his seatbelt. Shortly thereafter, the captain of the flight sent out a welcome to the passengers and said “Sit back and enjoy your flight and let us know if we can make your flight more comfortable.” The pilot said, “We are en route to Roma, Italy!”

After a very smooth take-off, Professor Smith resumed his work on his presentation to be presented in Bertinoro, Italy. After taking a short nap, Professor Smith noticed that the traveling passenger beside him was reading a number of fashion magazines. He turned to the passenger next to him and said “Hi! I’m John Smith” and she reported that she was Mary Jones. In an attempt start an intellectual discussion, Professor Smith said “I notice you are reading a number of fashion journals.” Mary replied that yes, she was interested in fashion design. Upon further discussion, Professor Smith learned that Mary was an entrepreneur currently starting a fashion business in Florence, Italy. Mary informed Professor Smith that she had worked with a fashion design company in New York City for 10 years and had decided to start her own business and move to the capital of design, Florence, Italy. Mary told Professor Smith in detail about her work in the United States and her work in Florence, Roma and Milan. Professor Smith was intrigued by this young entrepreneur and the two continued their discussion of fashion design, business start-ups, international relations, corporate responsibility, managing for tomorrow, corporate integrity and some discussion related to black market issues which greatly impact national taxation.

Professor Smith returned from his visit to Italy with a whole series of new ideas about cross-cultural global entrepreneurship. At a chance meeting, Professor Smith met another colleague, June Sumner, from another university. Upon this meeting, the two professors learned that they had a common interest in global entrepreneurship. Professor Sumner had just returned from a visit to Italy, where she had been working with the “Fashion for Good” project in Rome and Florence. She had also met Maurizio d'Amore, President of Alta Roma, a fashion association in Italy. President d'Amore and Professor Sumner conceptualized a learning environment that would be cross-cultural, cross-national, and would look at the public relations issues related to new cross-national entrepreneurship activities. Teaming together from two major universities, Professors Sumner and Smith decided to develop a learning environment that would cut across university structures and would be international in nature.

The Challenge

Entrepreneurs in Action! cases are written to be open-ended, flexible learning experiences for students. The case provides an introduction and a learning vignette to set the stage for the students. The student groups should carefully read the introduction and the learning vignette. After reading these areas, students should discuss the major issues outlined in the introduction and learning vignette. The students are then faced with the opportunity to develop possible solutions to the problems and opportunities outlined in the case. In most cases, students will find it necessary to seek information from some of the resources listed in the case and are to contact Online Experts early in the opportunity identification process. There are no right or wrong answers in these exercises and it is expected that multiple solutions will be developed by different groups. It is also suggested that students not only look at the political, economic and social issues, but to dream about future inventions and/or business opportunities that can derive from the case. The challenge begins with the following questions:

1) What do you think? 2) What solutions would you recommend if you were a member of this student team? 3) What new business ventures can be developed from this case?

After raising these questions, you are free to begin deliberations on possible solutions to the case. Your task is to study the fashion industry and design issues and to suggest and design new businesses that will reflect the best of corporate responsibility.

Core Concepts

1. International relations 2. Impact of fashion design 3. Free market system 4. Culture systems 5. Business ethics 6. Corporate responsibility (fashion as a social issue) 7. Organizations for the future Learning Objectives

1. To understand international public relations. 2. To realize it is possible for young entrepreneurs to develop international start-ups. 3. To learn about the fashion industry. 4. To learn how fashion can project an image. 5. To learn about cross-disciplinary cross-cultural ideas. 6. To learn to transfer knowledge to application.

Guiding Questions

1. What are the characteristics of a young entrepreneur interested in international fashion design? 2. What impact has fashion design had on cultural relations among countries? 3. How can the design business assist in the development of business integrity? 4. How can public relations be used to develop corporate responsibility? 5. What trends do students see in developing organizations for the future? 6. What kind of business/cultural learning environment can be developed in Italy that would draw students from the United States, Italy, France, Spain and other nations?

Resources

The following resources are listed to help student groups as they develop possible solutions to the problem. These resources are designed to help the students understand the case and to provide information about the issues. No solutions will be given in these references. Students should use these references and references from their own research to formulate solutions to the issues. These references are listed by categories in order to provide the students with resources that will provide a quick overview of some of the issues. Other resources maybe added during the case development. On-line experts are available to the student groups and can be used to help identify issues as well as other resources.

Background

The following have been provided to help you start your design journey. First of all, we would suggest that you read some of the following web sites. Web Sites

Corporate Responsibility http://www.questia.com/Index.jsp?CRID=corporate_responsibility&OFFID=se2 http://www.csrwire.com/

Fashion companies http://www.gapinc.com/social_resp/social_resp.htm http://www.bananarepublic.com/help/cs_about.asp http://www.brooksbrothers.com/AboutUs/landing_about.tem http://ir.thomsonfn.com/InvestorRelations/PubBusinessOutlook.aspx?partner=9189 http://www.eddiebauer.com/about/company_info/main_page.asp http://www.jonesnewyork.com/events_worklife.jsp http://www.ferragamo.com/ http://www1.talbots.com/about/default.asp? http://www.chicos.com/store/investor_relations.asp?n=bb http://www.patagonia.com/enviro/main_enviro_action.shtml http://www.time.com/time/2004/style/111504/

Book and Reports http://search.netscape.com/ns/search? query=corporate+social+responsibility&fromPage=NSBROWSER http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6713188/

Business Support Materials

These sources are non-technical and will provide the student with information about how to build a business plan around their ideas for case solutions. Allbusiness.com - http://allbusiness.com/ One of the most comprehensive sites on the Web for small and growing businesses, this site offers over 2000 articles, “how-to’s,” forms, agreements, questions-and-answers, solutions, and services useful to those starting a new business venture.

Bloomberg.com - http://www.bloomberg.com One of the leading sites for breaking financial news, investor tools and data, Bloomberg.com gives access to business information, including the latest data and analytical tools.

Bplans.com - http://www.bplans.com Bplans.com offers a large collection of free sample business plans online and helpful tools and know-how for managing a business. The site includes practical advice on planning, interactive tools, and a panel of experts available to answer specific questions.

The Business Forum Online - http://www.businessforum.com This service springs from a weekly newspaper column addressing issues and questions of specific interest to entrepreneurs and emerging businesses. Each column focuses on the immediate consequences of the issue to the owner/manager of the emerging business.

MoreBusiness.com - http://www.morebusiness.com MoreBusiness.com, a comprehensive resource for small businesses, contains tips, articles, ideas, templates, worksheets, sample business plans, tools, financial benchmarks, sample contracts, and websites.

These business sites may offer some ideas and provide some review articles. Some sites may require a fee. Or you may wish to use the Library for paper copies of current and past articles.

Wall Street Journal - http://www.wsj.com/ The leading daily business newspaper.

Fortune - http://www.fortune.com/ A leading business journal.

Harvard Business Review - www.harvardbusinessreview.com/ A leading cutting-edge business journal.

Businessweek.com - http://businessweek.com/ The website of the weekly business magazine, this site offers news and related information for the entrepreneur. An archive of articles is also provided. Some services may require subscription. www.uspto.gov - Patent and Trademark Office Excellent source for technical information. www.sba.gov/ADVO/stats - SBA Office of Advocacy--- Economic Statistics and Research http://www.sba.gov/ - SBA Small Business Administration--- SBA Support in starting, financing and managing a business www.bizoffice.com - Small and Home Based Business Links Provides support services for home-based companies. www.sbaer.uca.edu - Small Business Advancement National Center--- Resources include newsletters, archives, SBA and other Government sites and related affiliates. www.bizplan.com - Strategic Business Planning Co.--- The mission of the Strategic Business Planning Co. is to help organizations define their mission and achieve their objectives by developing business and strategic plans and by periodically conducting a comprehensive review of the environment in which they operate. www.business.gov - U.S. Business Advisor--- U.S. Business Advisor – a one-stop electronic link to the information and services government provides for the business community—Laws and regulations, forms and support services. www.census.gov - U.S. Census Bureau--- Resources include population census, economic data, Business surveys, and other related Bureau statistics. http://www.dowjones.com - Dow Jones – Latest financial information about stock market performance. www.benlore.com - The Entrepreneur's Mind The Entrepreneur's Mind is a Web-based resource that presents an array of real-life stories and advice from successful entrepreneurs and industry experts on the many different facets of entrepreneurship and emerging business. www.entrepreneurmag.com - Entrepreneur Magazine--- Provides solutions for growing businesses www.engeniussolutions.com - Engineering projects Provides information about new products and ideas (some student developed).

Online Experts

These online experts have agreed to be available for providing information, ideas and other support while the case is in progress. Students should e-mail questions to the appropriate person. They will respond, usually within one working day.

Public Relations Experts

Dr. Wilma King Professor - Public Relations Western Kentucky University [email protected]

Dr. Giancarlo Polenghi Professor - Public Relations Western Kentucky University [email protected]

Creativity and Entrepreneurship Experts

Dr. R. Wilburn Clouse Associate Professor - Creativity and Entrepreneurship Vanderbilt University [email protected]

Dr. Terry Goodin Research Associate - Creativity and Entrepreneurship Vanderbilt University [email protected]

Dr. Joe Aniello - Creativity and Entrepreneurship Assistant Professor Francis Marion University [email protected]

Online Resources and Video Clips

(Under development) Available at: http://entrepreneurship.vanderbilt.edu

Implementation

Usually the class is divided up into teams of 4-5 people, who are given an opportunity to review the Entrepreneurs in Action! exercise and to develop strategies for solving the situation or to see new ventures. Thus, students work together in small groups and learn a wide variety of skills related to teamwork development, problem identification, resource analysis and synthesis, product or process identification, potential market development, the application of cross-disciplinary thinking, product and process cost analysis, and written and verbal presentation skills. In this model, the case presents the students with an unresolved issue, provides some resources and permits the students to take charge of their own learning and to develop a new business venture out of the given situation.

Introducing Cases

Several methods may be used to introduce the Entrepreneurs in Action! cases to the class, as follows:

1. Divide the class into groups and to present the case to each group and permit limited discussions between groups. 2. Permit a selected number of students to role-play the scenario as a way of introducing the case. 3. Fishbowl. A small group of students may be requested to sit in the middle of the room and to discuss topics related to the case. The other students would observe and would synthesize the events afterwards. 4. Students may also be shown selected video clips to start the entrepreneurial thinking process. Some video clips are “The Triumph of the Nerds” series, the “Apprentice” TV show, the “October Sky” movie, “Pirates of Silicon Valley” movie, the “Seabiscuit” movie, or the Public TV version.

Student Activities Students are expected to participate actively in their groups and to contribute to developing creative ideas for possible business ventures. In doing so, students may be required to learn through reflections. Students are required to keep a journal of the activities of each group meeting and to record his or her thoughts and comments about the process. Students may also use concept mapping to study the issues and track progress development. IHMConcept Map Software is available free at the following website: http://cmap.coginst.uwf.edu/docs/.

Products

The final products to the cases are usually a written business plan and a final oral presentation. The final oral presentation can be given to different groups, such as the local Chamber of Commerce, other business and civic groups, a panel of Online Experts and/or to the class. A rubric is used to judge the creative and entrepreneurial ventures and grades are assigned based on the rubric evaluation. The development of the final product usually follows the outline below.

Phase One – Doing the Research Write a paper on the topic of the role of fashion in the development of a global economy and explain the societal and market forces that have an effect upon the issue. Identify a certain area of the problem space that interests you.

Phase Two – Find a Solution Working in groups, brainstorm the development of a range of business ideas, possibly including products, services and policies that would contribute to the solution of the problem issue. Your group should then choose one business idea for further development as a contributor to the overall solution of the problem. Fully expand upon the product or service, explaining in detail its rationale, creation and implementation. Keep in mind that the project must be marketable and must be financially self-sustaining. Develop your group’s business plan and presentation format.

Phase Three – Taking it Public Present your group’s solution to a team of peers, educators and experts in the field. You will submit to their evaluation, just as you would do so in the actual practice. You should employ a variety of presentation techniques, including a written business plan, handouts, and computer-based presentation. Assessments

Formative 1. Weekly logs

Students will submit a summary of their activities on a regular basis, the frequency of which will be decided by the instructor. The students should include a concise description of the activities and an analysis of their effectiveness. It is suggested that the summary of activities be part of a computer managed instructional program such as Prometheus, Blackboard or others. This allows the instructor and student groups to monitor their weekly progress.

2. In-class observations

Instructors will observe group work and interact in the role of facilitator as needed.

3. Position Paper

The paper required in Phase One will be graded for critical thinking and analytical substance. Instructors will also use the papers to assist in forming like student groups.

4. Teams of peers and visiting experts will evaluate the final presentation for content and appearance of the final product.

Summative

1. Business Plan Evaluations

Instructors will evaluate the completed business plans for accuracy, content, breadth, depth, and professional appearance.

2. Presentation Evaluation

Instructors will assess the professionalism of the final presentation, taking into account the content and appearance of the final product.

This work is part of the Forum for Entrepreneurship Education at Vanderbilt University and was support in part by The Coleman Foundation Inc.-- Grant number 4446-- Entrepreneurs in Action!, and The National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0091632 and other related funds. (Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this presentation are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation). [email protected]