Getting to know you!

I've had the pleasure of meeting most of the new faculty members for the fall 2009 semester and am getting oriented to the Paderno del Grappa campus on the beautiful grounds of the Istituto Fillipin (pictured above). This semester I'm teaching introduction to management and entrepreneurial strategies. Both courses will adopt a strong orientation toward problem-solving (especially Intro to Management, with its incorporation of the Kepner-Tregoe methods of decision-making and problem-solving), and both will be heavily grounded in international contexts.

Ferie Agosto

Most Italians take the entire month of August as holiday and leisure time. The Feriae Augusti dates back to at least 18 BC as a series of festivals and celebrations declared by the Roman emperor Augustus. Many businesses are closed during feire. Here in the Veneto dozens of manufacturers are able to accommodate this downtime through cooperation and by somehow avoiding bad agency behaviors. It's an interesting thought experiment to imagine how US firms would behave under similar cultural expectations...