Media Coverage

"Supply chains" are suddenly big news, as coronavirus complications have made it harder to get products, goods, groceries, and many other things to customers who need them.

Rutgers Business School professor Alok Baveja said that we are headed for a "strategic redesign of supply chains." He believes that's likely to be a great thing in the long run. "We anticipate a trend of supply chains getting shorter and faster, which paradoxically can provide higher resilience and, ultimately, higher profitability."

Baveja warned businesses that they need to think about how they run their supply chains "strategically" rather than "focus on temporary solutions or rely on government incentives."

Todd Simmens, a tax risk management partner with BDO USA and adjunct professor with Rutgers Business School, Accounting & Information Systems, joins the On the Move panel to discuss what to expect as the July 15 tax deadline looms. (Video)

Susan succeeds often in life. She and I have been friends for fifteen years. We are the same age and have the same job — we are both professors at the same level (though at different universities) who study human behavior.

Recently, Susan told me she is planning her next big career move. “It’s going to be a game-changer for my career,” she said. My heart dropped to the pit of my stomach. She continued. I feigned encouragement. But, I felt some combination of sad, angry, and scared. Deep down, I hoped she would fail.

It’s horrifying that I did not want Susan to succeed because she is my friend. But, because she is a work colleague, she’s also my competition.

To help you find the best small business rewards credit card for your company’s needs, WalletHub’s editors compared more than 1,000 offers.

Ask the experts

John LongoPh.D., Professor of Professional Practice in the Finance & Economics Department at Rutgers Business School

Should every small business owner have a business rewards credit card?

I believe that all small business owners that are responsible for credit should own one or more business rewards credit cards.

What tips do you have for small business owners who are shopping for a rewards card?

Use the credit cards that provide the maximum benefit for your specific business. Of course, the most important rule about credit cards is to pay them off in full each month, since the interest rate charged on running balances will overwhelm the rewards provided.

I don't think that when starting a career in business many years ago, Beverly Aisenbrey thought she would be hanging with Jamie Lee Curtis on a movie set. But, you never know where life will take you when you just keep persisting and work hard.

Suzee: You are a Rutgers alum as am I. How did your RU education help you in your career?

Beverly Aisenbrey: The education I received from Rutgers Business School, where I completed my MBA, helped me transition from a career as a researcher in the field of biology to management consulting at a private, boutique company specializing in executive compensation consulting. I was offered an ownership position in the firm after several years and stayed with them for my entire 34-year career. I feel that I used all the education I received in finance, marketing, and human resources in my career.

The career aspirations of a generation of women in finance may hinge on getting back into the office or onto the trading floor.

Women fill barely a third of positions in certain areas of finance. And a prolonged stretch of remote work risks making matters worse for those now entering the industry -- especially when it comes to networking and overcoming biases. In-person interaction is a key aspect of developing the allies needed to thrive, says Lisa Kaplowitz, director of the Center for Women in Business at Rutgers Business School. That’s especially true in professions like banking where senior managers have traditionally skewed male.

”If you don’t have that face time with your bosses and your managers, you aren’t going to have that repartee with them,” said Kaplowitz, who’s held senior finance posts at companies and worked as a Wall Street analyst. “Women generally haven’t been as confident to have their voices heard even when they are physically sitting together with colleagues. I hear that all the time from women, and that is just compounded when they are on a Zoom call.”

Listen to the podcast at: https://toddleonardshow.com/2020/07/02/the-todd-leonard-show-featuring-paul-profeta-of-profeta-urban-investment-foundation/

Paul Profeta is a successful real-estate entrepreneur who spoke about his Profeta Urban Investment Foundation (http://profetafoundation.org/) and its mission, which is “to build a world-class research-driven, teaching and practitioner-oriented urban entrepreneurship and economic development program that will transform the economy of Newark, and other urban centers; create wealth in urban communities; and be a model for all urban universities.”

Paul discussed the Rutgers Business School and its Center for Urban Entrepreneurship & Economic Development (CUEED), which funnels expertise to the startups via a team of MBA students as part of the public-private partnership.

The United States today named panelists for the Rapid Response Labor Mechanism, a key tool for the enforcement of the United-States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) labor protections. The U.S. national panelists are Janice Bellace, Lance Compa, Peter Hurtgen, Ira Jaffe, Kevin Kolben, and Ed Potter.

“The U.S. Department of Labor is pleased that some of the best and brightest in the labor field have been appointed to this vital enforcement panel of the USMCA,” said Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia.

Kevin Kolben is an Associate Professor at the Rutgers Business School and an expert on transnational labor regulation and labor governance in supply chains. Kolben has written extensively on labor in the international context.

Professor John Cantwell, Rutgers Business School, USA, will be the keynote speaker at this year’s Jena Lecture in Economic Geography (JLS) In addition to the keynote lecture, we will organize a one-day workshop that provides participants with the unique opportunity of presenting and discussing ongoing research projects with Professor Cantwell. Interested PhD students and postdoctoral researchers are invited to submit extended abstracts or full papers addressing original research related to the topic of the workshop. Abstracts and papers should be written in English. Prof. Cantwell will hold his keynote lecture on “How Knowledge Connectivity Affects Global Innovation Divergence Across the World’s Major Cities” on November 5, 2020, at 7 pm.

A $300,000 bequest by the estate of a school teacher who was a star Rutgers lacrosse and football player nearly a century ago has grown into a $4 million gift to endow scholarships for student-athletes who compete in eight Olympic sports.

The growth of the funds in Bender’s estate was helped considerably by students at Rutgers Business School–Newark and New Brunswick. In 1994, the school established Little Investment Bankers of Rutgers, or LIBOR. Students in the organization provided investment research to the Bender Trust as they pursued both investment returns and valuable career experience. Since 1994, nearly 1,000 Rutgers students have participated in an annual Bender Trust stock analysis project.

Professor Ben Sopranzetti is the advisor for the Little Investment Bankers of Rutgers (LIBOR) and places 30-40 students per year in front office jobs on Wall Street. In the course of his career, he has been involved in the job placement of over 500 students.

It’s been a long journey, but the Black and Latino Angel Investment Fund of New Jersey is about to hear pitches from the first three entrepreneurs hoping for investment.

The fund, started by Lyneir Richardson, executive director of the Center for Urban Entrepreneurship & Economic Development at Rutgers Business School in Newark, has 10 angel investors and has raised $500,000 so far. The angels want to invest at the pre-seed level in companies headed by Black and Latino founders in the Newark area. The fund continues to look for new angel investors to join on this journey.

The idea, Richardson told NJTechWeekly.com, is to give founders of color — who often don’t have a rich patron to help bootstrap a startup — a leg up the funding ladder, so they can get to a level where they’ll qualify for an accelerator.

The New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants (NJCPA) is pleased to announce that 40 individuals are the recipients of its 2020 Ovation Awards. The annual awards honor exemplary efforts and outstanding achievements in the accounting profession. The seven award categories are Diversity, Equity & Inclusion; Exceptional Educators; Emerging Leaders; Impact; Innovation; Lifetime Leader; and Women to Watch.

Exceptional Educators
Dr. Leonard Goodman, CPA, MBA — Professor, Department of Accounting, Rutgers University, New Brunswick

Aunt Jemima, the long-standing brand that finally was put to rest this week, has slavery in its corporate DNA.
Aunt Jemima, along with Uncle Ben, who it was announced this week will also be getting the heave-ho, were not responsible for creating stereotypes. Bigotry isn’t new.
But the indisputably racist brands, and their bewildering longevity, speak to the power of marketing in reinforcing offensive stereotypes.

Simply put, if corporate America hadn’t given its full backing to creating and promoting these images as sales tools, making them both culturally legitimate and highly profitable, it’s debatable whether the country’s racial divisions would have run so deep for so long.

“There’s very strong support for that premise,” said Jerome Williams, a business professor at Rutgers University. “Corporate America perpetuated this situation.”

A pair of conflicting headlines told the story as the UK attempted to reawaken its shopping gene for the first time in three months. One was: “Johnson tells Brits to shop with confidence”. The other was “London stocks tumble on fears of second virus wave”.

What do anxious people do? They save more. Kristina Durante, a professor of marketing at the Rutgers Business School, carried out a series of experiments on consumer behaviour under stress and published a paper in 2016 on the topic.

She found they turned to savings as a form of taking back control over an uncontrollable situation, but also shifted what they spent their money on. She wrote: “Stress leads consumers to save money in general but spend strategically on products that they perceive as necessities.”

Business consultants and international trade experts say there’s starting to be a real rebound from the planet-wide COVID-19 pandemic, but there’s going to be a lasting impact nonetheless on the way global business is conducted.

Denis G. Hamilton, an assistant professor of professional practice in the Rutgers Business School‘s Department of Management & Global Business, said the ongoing tug-of-war between globalization and nationalism in international trade discussions has been amplified by the crisis.

“The rhetoric from the U.S. has not been favorable towards organizations like the WTO, for example,” Hamilton said. “This is an organization that helps mediate trade agreements and disputes between countries, among other things. As there is less confidence in trade agreements being honored or enforced, then there is more risk in developing such agreements, which can further restrict international trade.”

Looking for tips on how to become a successful minority entrepreneur? A webinar Wednesday — featuring four successful New Jersey entrepreneurs — is intended to offer ideas and steps for success.

Marjorie Perry, CEO and president of MZM Construction Management Co.; Ramon Ray, the founder of Smart Hustle Media; Alfred Blake IV, the assistant director of entrepreneurship programs at Rutgers Business School; and Alex Hamilton, the former CEO of media startup Vipeline Inc., will offer their thoughts.

It’s one of life’s frustrations: No matter who you are, most of the smartest people will always be working for someone else. So, in this big world, no matter how great your team is, it pays to be connected with innovators across your industry.

That’s part of the draw of hack events – people ditch their company affiliations and titles at the door, and for a few days they get to use their skills on problems that are bigger than any one company.

Jerome Williams, a business professor at Rutgers University, recalled an episode in the 1980s when three of his children failed to meet back up during a shopping outing.

After much worry, Williams discovered they were detained by mall security, who deemed the kids suspicious because they were wearing new shirts.

Besides the encounter itself, Williams was troubled by white work colleagues who told him the incident was no big deal.

Since then, "there has been tremendous progress, but we have not eliminated all of the problem," said Williams, who advises retailers on addressing profiling.

How long can consumers expect free balance transfer offers (0% APR with no transfer fee), such as Chase Slate, to be around?

I do not see that changing soon. This is a great way for banks to lure low and medium credit risk customers away from their competitors.

Why would a major credit card company like Chase not offer cards to people with limited or bad credit?

Because collections in the event of default are costly and difficult. Many high-risk borrowers don't have a lot of assets that Chase could go after if the borrower defaults. Chase could sue them, but then what? There is little to go after if the borrower declares bankruptcy. It isn't' like Chase is asking people to put up collateral for their credit cards.

Ben Sopranzetti Ph.D., RBS Dean's Professor of Business, Vice Chair, Department of Finance and Economics, Rutgers Business School - Newark and New Brunswick

‘Taking responsibility ultimately comes down to thinking about how you can better lead your team. Ground yourself in your new reality, through data and research, before moving to action.

‘Too often I see leaders who are desperate to act, so they make mistakes. Don’t jump the gun – it’s crucial to not take on more than your capacity allows. Along with the importance of your own replenishment, taking away other people’s responsibilities has awful consequences.

Rutgers Business School senior Sina Abrahim is among the students who will be missing the usual milestones of college graduation – the procession in cap and gown, the walk across the stage to receive his degree, the last hurrah with classmates.

But at the end of that disappointment, Abrahim has another dream he will get to realize: a full-time job at J.P. Morgan.

In addition to its world re-known faculty and highly ranked academic programs, a distinguishing strength of Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick is an Office of Career Management that equips students like Abrahim with the skills and confidence to pursue their dream jobs.

Rutgers Business School senior Sina Abrahim is among the students who will be missing the usual milestones of college graduation – the procession in cap and gown, the walk across the stage to receive his degree, the last hurrah with classmates.

But at the end of that disappointment, Abrahim has another dream he will get to realize: a full-time job at J.P. Morgan.

In addition to its world re-known faculty and highly ranked academic programs, a distinguishing strength of Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick is an Office of Career Management that equips students like Abrahim with the skills and confidence to pursue their dream jobs.

The Logistics Managers’ Index is the culmination of a years-long collaboration between a number of academics around the world. With Covid-19 now forcing people to once again review their spending habits and shaking up global markets, a tool like the LMI is more important than ever before. A better understanding of how our economy is reacting to Covid-19 and the direction that it is likely to move in in the near future are both invaluable.

The LMI was devised by a group of US-based academics over the last four years or so. Those academics are:

Dale Rogers from Arizona State University
Zachary Rogers, assistant professor at Colorado State University
Shen Yeniyurt from Rutgers University
Steven Carnovale from the Rochester Institute of Technology
Ronald Lembke from University of Nevada, Reno

Founders of color don’t just have a harder time getting initial funding. They get less of it. While the average seed funding for all startups is $1.1 million, the average black female founder, according to digitalundivided, raises $42,000 in total. “They are almost immediately going back in that environment again to seek additional funds,” Maillian said.

Founders of color are met with a “chicken and egg” problem, said Jeffrey Robinson, an economic development professor at Rutgers Business School. Because to raise more money after initial funding, your company has to show growth. “How’s that company doing? Is it meeting its goals?” he said.

Jerome D. Williams, Distinguished Professor, Marketing, Rutgers Business School; Prudential Chair
Research Interests: Multicultural marketing and marketplace discrimination

Recommends:

Consumer Equality: Race and the American Marketplace, Geraldine R. Henderson, Anne-Marie G. Hakstian, and Jerome D. Williams (2016),

“Typically, when we think of racism, our focus is on major events that generally receive widespread news coverage. However, racism also occurs in everyday, mundane situations such as those that occur in the marketplace. It is in this context that we often see what researchers describe as microaggressions, microassaults, implicit racism, etc. This research-based book provides not only empirical evidence of marketplace discrimination, but it also examines the legal issues and historical contexts of such marketplace phenomena.”

“Can I have it? Can I go? I don’t want to leave right now. It’s not fair!” We spend hours every week negotiating with our kids. In the blink of an eye, a peaceful household can turn upside-down as we step into quicksand and find ourselves negotiating. When we’re instantly overwhelmed like this, our emotions take over and we shut down, resorting to defaults like “Because I said so!”

Negotiations shouldn’t be a winner-take-all game where you either insist on your way or just try to get out of the moment unscathed (by getting them yet one more toy dinosaur because it’s easier). Instead, think of negotiations as a chance for you and your kids to problem-solve together.

What was your favorite MBA event or tradition at your business school?

My favorite tradition is one that began organically amongst ourselves. Every summer, we visit the home countries of one of our classmates. Last summer, it was Colombia and we explored the beaches of the Rosario Islands, Cartagena, Medellin, and Bogota. This reflects the curiosity and adventurous spirit of Rutgers Business School (RBS) MBA’s pretty accurately.

Want to make more money? Want that dream job? Putting an offer on a home? If you think about it, we're always negotiating...at home, at work, with our partner and family, and on and on. Want to be a negotiating warrior? Dr. Terri Kurtzberg – a Social Scientist as I like to call her! – shares proven tactics to prepare you for your next big (or little negotiation) conversation.

William McLaury, a professor of supply-chain management at Rutgers Business
School, said that there might be a mandate for at least a percentage of the
health care supplies to be sourced domestically. McLaury was executive director
of the pharma supply chain for Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation for over
30 years before his academic tenure.

“There might need to be some type of financial incentive offered to the
companies to offset the potential costs incurred to make this transition,” he told
VOA.

He added that domestic capacity would also have to be ramped up, and
regulatory approval of any new supply sources would take some time.

Pressure to ramp up production of low-margin products that account for less than 5 percent of revenue isn't Medline's only challenge. COVID-19 also has broader implications for the $14 billion company.

Medline Industries attracted little public attention for decades as it grew to become the
largest privately owned supplier of medical products.

It took COVID-19 just a couple of months to drag the $14 billion-revenue company into the global spotlight as a critical source of desperately needed personal protective equipment for health care workers battling the pandemic. But the attention hasn't always been flattering, and surging demand for basics like surgical gloves and face masks hasn't been the windfall it might appear to be.

Whether the federal government will provide financial incentives for those companies to diversify their PPE sources "is a big question mark at the moment," says David Ding, director of the Healthcare Analytics & Intelligence program at Rutgers Business School. "Obviously (the companies) are going to incur much higher costs. Would they be able to raise the price so that we, as end users, would pay more out of pocket? That's a very classic debate."

John M. Longo, a professor at Rutgers Business School and the Chief Investment Officer for Beacon Trust, called the 32 percent drop “disappointing” compared to overall market performance.

Longo wrote the decision to purchase gold shares “may be considered a defensive measure” against an unstable stock market.

“Gold often rises when stocks fall, since it is viewed as a ‘flight to quality’ asset,” he wrote. “In addition, the massive monetary and fiscal programs enacted by The Federal Reserve and Congress to blunt the economic fallout of COVID-19 may negatively impact the value of the U.S. Dollar going forward. Gold often rises when the U.S. Dollar weakens.”

Research shows that consumer response to stress is in fact dependent on how much control they believe they have over their environment. A journal article co-authored by Kristina M. Durante, an associate professor of marketing at Rutgers Business School, outlines six experimentsshowing that consumers who perceive a low level of control in the face of stress are more likely to save money or spend it only on necessities. Obvious, yes, but as Durante explains on the school's website, the flip side was that 'those who were stressed out and then had their sense of control restored… were more willing to spend their money.' The lesson for marketers: In the face of unpredictability- extreme weather, elections, market crashes, even pandemics - consumers may be more open to products framed as necessities or that they believe will restore a sense of control.

The tools economists use to measure economic activity to predict economic growth or recession across the U.S. are evolving — especially with the rise of online sales. And now, as the pandemic is shifting consumer habits and straining industries nationwide, the need for a timely sense of economic activity is more vital than ever.

One way for measuring service economies based on warehousing, transportation and inventory is playing an increasingly important role in providing that picture. The Logistics Managers’ Index is the result of nearly four years of work by Ron Lembke, associate professor of operations management and chair of the Marketing Department at the University of Nevada, Reno’s College of Business, and his colleagues.

The research group includes Lembke’s former colleague, Dale Rogers from Arizona State University; Zachary Rogers, an assistant professor at Colorado State University and University MBA alumnus; Shen Yeniyurt from Rutgers University; and Steven Carnovale from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

“Ultimately, we’re measured and judged by the business, but the business doesn’t succeed without great staff and the staff doesn’t succeed without great supervision,” says Marc Kalan, assistant professor of professional practice at Rutgers Business School. “It’s not an intuitive skill set. You have to leverage skills and talents while recognizing deficiencies and assist your staff in overcoming them.”

Mini-MBA: Business Essentials – Rutgers Business School
Cost: US$3,495
Duration: 12 weeks

The Mini-MBA from Rutgers Business School is the ideal course for professionals who want to gain new knowledge of the modern business world. The 12-week program is taught completely through the online space by real-world industry experts and covers topics such as the digitalization of business, the impact of globalization and international business. The course is credit-based.

Gov. Phil Murphy has tapped more than three dozen development executives, labor leaders and other industry professionals as part of a new council to help restart New Jersey’s economy.

The governor on Friday announced the formation of a statewide council to advise the administration in reopening business and recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. The group includes nine subcommittees spanning industry and government, including one dubbed facilities and construction that includes many of the state’s top developers and trade association leaders.

The full [36 member] facilities and construction subcommittee includes:
Morris Davis, Rutgers Center for Real Estate

Technology such as chatbots, telemedicine and voice interfaces are making it easier for patients to get the information and care they need quickly and easily and will continue to do so long after the current healthcare crisis has abated.

On May 28, I’ll be hosting a webinar with my colleague Derek Phillips, Director of Content Strategy at PK, called Building Connected Healthcare Experiences to Come Back Stronger from the Pandemic, in conjunction with eHealthcare Strategy & Trends. In the webinar, we’ll explore how you can enable personalized journeys built on consumer preferences, and integrate content, data, and technology in new ways that create business value and increase patient loyalty.

Sharon Lydon, associate professor of professional practice, who is 46, discovered the different traits of several generations in her workforce on a programme for 35 administrators at the business school last year. The course, Leading and Managing a Multi-Generational Workforce, is now available to executives at other organisations. It is one of several programmes aiming to help participants lead the current “5G workforce”, shorthand for having five generations working cheek by jowl for the first time.

Is there a correlation between saving money and shopping online?

In most product categories, on-line vendors hold the advantage over traditional "brick and mortar" businesses. They have significantly lower overhead due to not having multiple retail outlets and personnel to man them. They may also be able to offer a wider array of options from potentially more manufacturers. So, in many product categories, disruptive competitors like Harry's Razor's or Warby Parker have taken these niches. As a result, those organizations can pass those savings on to their customers. And, while true for mattresses, this is a very unique category. The close and daily (or should I say nightly) relationship adds a personal evaluation factor that many might feel is worth a bit more expense, as the ability to try that product along with competitors is a value unto itself.

What about saving money and shopping in person?

Many categories are available in retailers whose sole focus is low prices to stimulate volume. And while the selection may be less, those retailers whose abilities to buy large volumes of specific items may also enable opportunities for large saving versus traditional department stores (a la Macy's) or other retail outlets.

The CARES Act also makes qualified improvement property, or QIP eligible for bonus depreciation, which means that businesses can write off the cost of a purchase in just one year, Falk said. When a restaurant spends $100,000 on renovations, it can deduct $100,000 on its tax return for the year it made the renovations. Jay Soled, a professor at Rutgers Business School and a tax lawyer, said bonus depreciation offers the businesses a “very, very generous write-off.”

“Zoom (or any other video chat tool) tires us out,” says Terri Kurtzberg PhD, author of Virtual Teams: Mastering Communication and Collaboration in the Digital Age and an associate professor of management and global business at Rutgers Business School in New Brunswick, NJ. Her areas of expertise include virtual teams, electronic communications, negotiation strategies and tactics, and organizational creativity. In other words, she’s done enough research and conducted enough studies to know.

“Virtual teams have many of the same challenges and problems that traditional teams do, but they tend to experience them to a greater extent (more often, more intensely, more quickly in the process, and more deeply rooted/difficult to eradicate.) Coupled with the changes in conversation, comprehension, and decision making that can result from virtual interaction, these teams have a lot to contend with in order to successfully operate,” she says.

The TiE University program in New Jersey hosted its first-ever virtual event for student entrepreneurs on April 20.

“As the economy is on hold and many large companies are going out of business, should students put their startup plans on hold, continue their education, or maybe even work for someone else for a period prior to returning to their model?” Kumar asked Mukesh Patel, an assistant professor of professional practice at Rutgers Business School.

“This is a great opportunity right now to do a couple of things. But what you do with the decision you make should be based on your strategy, not just a random kind of decision-making,” Patel said. He then noted that student entrepreneurs should consider whether they need to emphasize their academics right now, or if they need a job to help with family finances. They must also assess their risk tolerance.

Kristina Durante, a business psychology professor from Rutgers University, specializes in consumer trends in the beauty industry. Her work studying women’s consumer habits during the Great Recession of 2008 gives her valuable insight into today’s consumer trends.

“Any sort of beauty-enhancing product is predicted to run counter-cyclical to recessions,” Durante said. “So whenever we get the news that things are bad, that there’s uncertainty and scarcity, one of the things we know is products that are foolproof are these beauty enhancement products.”

Durante believes that the combination of a pandemic and a looming recession has triggered this same unconscious fear response in consumers today, driving sales of beauty products to these especially high rates.

Join Comedian Shane Mauss as he interviews science experts across the country in a journey to find out what makes us who we are.
Professor Kristina Durante’s research program focuses on how our evolved biology (ancestral ecology and internal physiological systems) and our modern social environment interact to influence behavior.

Download and/or listen to Shane Mauss’s interview.
Durante starts around 8:24.

“My foray into 3D printing of PPE became formalized when Peter Englot, senior vice chancellor for public affairs and chief of staff at Rutgers-Newark, invited me to join the Rutgers 3D Printing PPE Initiative,” shared Rosen. Rutgers Business School supply chain management professor Kevin Lyons, who is helping coordinate Rutgers supply chains in response to the pandemic, facilitated that connection. The initiative falls under the purview of the Rutgers COVID-19 Task Force and consists of representatives from all four chancellor-led units: Rutgers University–Newark, Rutgers University–New Brunswick, Rutgers University–Camden, and Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences.

But in general, most of the tests being made available across the country detect only whether the antibodies are present said Rutgers Executive MBA student Dr. Jeffrey Jhang, medical director of clinical laboratories and transfusion services for the Mount Sinai Health System. A direct-to-consumer test announced on Tuesday from Quest Diagnostics — more on that below — measures only presence or absence.

Antibodies can take generally anywhere from about a week to 14 days to develop, Dr. Jhang said, and the levels of antibodies vary based on time since exposure and a person’s immune system. This means that a lack of antibodies does not necessarily mean you were not exposed to the virus.

An MBA is more than the sum of its parts, but it’s possible to pick up much of the knowledge and skills the degree provides at a fraction of the cost. From “mini-MBAs” to spruced-up online programs, there are a plethora of MBA alternatives. These alternatives to MBA programs are not just ‘MBA lite’ programs, but are offered by business schools themselves, and in many cases are designed by top professors. They often come with the option to purchase a certificate that can be shown to prospective employers. Or the chance to buy academic credit that can be applied to a full MBA.

The rise of fintechs has given more companies the freedom to move away from the standard “2 percent discount in 10 days, net 30 days” payment template, according to Rudi Leuschner, an associate professor in the department of Supply Chain Management at Rutgers Business School. “Since 2008, companies have been taking longer to pay their suppliers,” he said. Benchmarking data from an American Productivity & Quality Center April report backs that up, indicating that a majority of companies have an average 53 days outstanding on their payables accounts.

"But some businesses, like Pfizer, are also paying their suppliers earlier in some cases,” said Leuschner. “They’re using fintech platforms like C2FO, which lets suppliers offer a discount to Pfizer in exchange for early payment. The supplier wins because they get paid sooner, Pfizer wins because it will only agree to an early payment if the supplier-offered dis-count makes sense, and the fintech makes money by taking a small piece of the high volume of transactions.”

In today’s tech age, much of our life and work is on the go. And while we’ve all used messaging applications to stay informed, none of them really keep us connected the way we need to be. Enter Staffbase’s Director of Marketing Jason Etter and President and Co-Founder Frank Wolf, the men who are on a mission to help the forgotten employee. On today’s episode of Marketing Trends, Jason and Frank stress the importance of company culture in the digital era, the value of simplistic and meaningful messaging, and why events are the best way to meet and understand your clients.

Listen to Podcast

Here’s why we’re talking about it now: When your body is exposed to a foreign pathogen, your body’s response is to produce antibodies, “which are proteins that can bind to the virus and help to deactivate it, clear it from circulation and prevent it from invading the body’s cells,” according to Rutgers Executive MBA student Dr. Jeffrey Jhang, medical director of clinical laboratories and transfusion services for the Mount Sinai Health System in New York.