Pennsylvania Business Central

Deloitte selects Smeal as target school for MBA supply chain recruits

PBC Staff — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:31:52 +0000

University Park – Deloitte has selected the Penn State Smeal College of Business MBA Program as one of four programs nationwide where it is launching a targeted recruiting effort focused on supply chain management professionals.

As part of this new initiative, Deloitte Consulting’s Supply Chain practice will begin its ramped-up recruitment efforts at Smeal this fall.

Smeal’s educational and research programs in supply chain management are frequently recognized by third-party researchers, consulting firms and media outlets to be among the best in the world. A 2009 survey of supply chain companies and academic institutions conducted by research firm AMR Research identified Smeal as having the best supply chain program in the United States in terms of industry value, program depth and program scope.

Also in 2009, a survey of supply chain academics and practitioners published in Supply Chain Management Review ranked the Smeal supply chain program among the top two such programs in North America.

U.S. News & World Report ranks the Smeal MBA Program No. 7 nationally among programs with a focus in supply chain management.

TEDxPSU speakers announced on September 1, 2010

PBC Staff — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:28:36 +0000

University Park – Innovators in technology, entertainment and design from around the world will come together to spread new and engaging ideas at TEDxPSU, which will be held Oct. 10 in Schwab Auditorium on Penn State’s University Park campus.

“Our team of dedicated volunteers worked incredibly hard over the summer to put together the program that we’re announcing today,” said Steve Garguilo, TEDxPSU executive director. “It’s impossible to quantify our level of excitement right now as we prepare to share in this experience with the Penn State community. We look forward to broad participation from students, faculty, alumni and community members across the entire commonwealth.”

The event’s theme is “ATTEND, LISTEN, ENLIGHTEN,” drawing on the event’s date (10-10-10). Christian Brady, dean of Penn State’s Schreyer Honors College, will serve as host.

The TEDxPSU speakers include:

–Tonee Ndungu, entrepreneur, innovator and social enabler in Nairobi, Kenya;

– Tony Pittman, former Penn State football player and director of business relationship management at Hewlett Packard Global Supply Chain Services;

– Michael Pritchard, inventor and designer of the LIFESAVER water bottle;

– Sam Richards, co-director of the World in Conversation Project at Penn State;

– John Rives, poet, author and storyteller;

– Jordan “DJ Earworm” Roseman, mashup artist and entertainer; and

– Bruce Schneier, information technology and security expert.

The event is free and open to the public. To register now through Sept. 26, visit http://www.tedxpsu.com online. All prospective attendees will be asked to answer a few questions during registration so the organizing committee can best determine which location is best for each participant. In addition to the main Schwab Auditorium location, TEDxPSU will have some “watch party” locations at University Park for groups to assemble. “Watch party” events also will be held at Penn State’s Commonwealth campuses to engage the entire University community, and the event will be streamed at http://www.tedxpsu.com online.

Construction unemployment shows minor change in August

PBC Staff — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:02:56 +0000

Washington, DC -The unemployment rate for the construction industry edged down to 17 percent in August compared to 17.3 percent one month earlier, according to September 3 employment report by the Department of Labor. In contrast, the nonresidential building construction sector lost 200 jobs last month and has lost 31,900 jobs, or 7.4 percent, over the past year. Nonresidential building construction employment now stands at 682,400 jobs.

While nonresidential building construction employment was down in August, two other nonresidential-related construction sectors posted increases for the month. Heavy and civil engineering construction gained 10,600 jobs in August, the largest increase since March 2007. Still, over the past twelve months, the sector has lost 10,000 jobs or 1.2 percent of employment. Nonresidential specialty trade contractors gained 18,200 jobs in August, the largest monthly increase since October 2007. However, employment in that sector is still down 123,700 jobs, or 5.8 percent, since August 2009.

The residential building construction sector lost 2,600 jobs for the month and has lost 45,700, or 7.4 percent of available employment over the past twelve months. The overall construction industry gained 19,000 jobs in August following three consecutive months of job declines. Year-over-year, the construction industry has lost 274,000 jobs or 4.7
percent of total employment.

Total employment across all industries shrank by 54,000 jobs, the third straight monthly decline. Over that three month period, 283,000 jobs have been lost nationwide. Over the past twelve months, employment is up by 229,000 jobs or 0.2 percent. The national unemployment rate now stands at 9.6 percent with 14.9 million people out of work.

“The nation lost 54,000 jobs and this was viewed as good news – a reflection of the power of lowered expectations,” said Associated Builders and Contractors Chief Economist Anirban Basu. “Many economists had predicted that the nation would shed more than 100,000 jobs in August.

“Financial markets began rebounding immediately upon the release of today’s data. In addition, the nation’s construction sector added jobs, with the most significant growth recorded among nonresidential specialty trade contractors. For two key segments, monthly job performance has not been this good since 2007,” said Basu.

July construction stands at $805.2 billion annual rate, falls below estimates

PBC Staff — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 18:15:43 +0000

Washington, DC – The U.S. Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce announced that construction spending during July 2010 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $805.2 billion, 1.0 percent below the revised June estimate of $813.1 billion. The July figure is 10.7 percent below the July 2009 estimate of $901.2 billion.

During the first 7 months of this year, construction spending amounted to $460.3 billion, 11.8 percent below the $522.0 billion for the same period in 2009.

Private construction spending stood at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $506.4 billion, 0.8 percent below the revised June estimate of $510.7 billion. Residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $240.3 billion in July, 2.6 percent below the revised June estimate of $246.7 billion. Nonresidential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $266.1 billion in July, 0.8 percent above the revised June estimate of $264.0 billion.

In July, the estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of public construction spending was $298.8 billion, 1.2 percent below the revised June estimate of $302.4 billion. Educational construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $73.0 billion, 0.1 percent below the revised June estimate of $73.1 billion. Highway construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $76.8 billion, 2.9 percent below the revised June estimate of $79.1 billion.

Looking Into the Future of Our Gas Patch

Daniel J. Nestlerode — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 17:05:17 +0000

The Marcellus Shale natural gas find is arguably the largest or second largest natural gas resource in the world. To date it has attracted a number of small and medium-sized drilling outfits that are busily writing leases and starting the development process; drilling, hydro-fracturing, running pipelines and managing the dance of getting all the pieces together at the right time to sell gas to the major natural gas pipelines that cross Pennsylvania. So far more than a billion dollars has been spent on landowner leases, with billions more to be spent getting the gas ready to sell into the Northeast United States market. By any standards, this is a big deal.

Yet, this big deal is probably too big for the small and mid sized drillers to keep to themselves. As a result, the major oil companies that routinely deal in multi billion dollar energy developments are entering the Marcellus Shale by taking over the small and mid sized drillers. Exxon Mobile already has a deal with XTO Energy. Privately owned Chief Oil and Gas is up for sale. Rexx Energy, a State College firm, seems designed for eventual take over by some larger firm. Shell Oil is buying in. I suspect it will only be a short time until all the major oil firms have large developments in the Marcellus Shale. Investors might want to look over the list of Marcellus developers in Pennsylvania Business Central’s Book of Lists to find potential takeover candidates.

If you only look to the drillers, you will miss the secondary development that will come to central Pennsylvania. The Fort Worth area of Texas provides a good idea of the nature of the development that is coming to rural Pennsylvania.

While our rural area will have its own flavor of development, you can count on more people, more and better infrastructure and more money in the central and north central Pennsylvania counties.

I have already heard that a local businessman bought 25 convenience stores in the play, looking for increased business from the gas development people; young men doing the physically difficult work of drilling, site preparation, stone hauling and water transporting. These guys live in convenience stores.

I suspect that the hospitality industry will continue to be busy expanding, adding rooms and restaurants to service these young men. Already the motels and hotels in the gas play are filled to overflowing, displacing the bucolic vacationers who are known to frequent the wilds of Pennsylvania during the summer and fall. Some of these vacationers are not too happy that their usual haunts are already filled taking care of the first wave of gas development workers. I also suspect that the community banks, flush with gas lease checks – and soon royalty checks – from landowners are going to be targets for mergers and buyouts from other banks looking for a good source of long term deposits and business development opportunities.

Changes are coming to the area and things will never be the same in the wilds of the Keystone State. And if the developers are careful, it won’t be a bad thing for the environment or the locals.

Penn State drives redevelopment of Altoona’s downtown

PBC Staff — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 16:53:01 +0000

Altoona — By this time next year, Penn State Altoona students hoping to start their own businesses will learn how from downtown business owners and other community leaders at the campus’ new entrepreneurship center.

The campus hopes to open the center next fall on 11th Avenue using the former Meyer Jonasson and Kaufman Wedding World sites. The new center, to be named after the Sheetz family, is the latest project expanding the campus into downtown Altoona and contributing to revitalization of that area.

Local residents and business owners Stephen and Nancy Sheetz donated $3 million to the project, the largest in campus history, which also will help start the Sheetz Fellows Program, pairing students with local business leaders in a mentoring partnership.

Donna Bon, entrepreneurship instructor and Cynthia Wood, business administration instructor, expressed excitement about the possibilities the new center will allow, including consultation for local businesses, resources for students to start their own businesses while still in college and cross-discipline opportunities.

“It’s going to be a nice bridge for the community and academia,” Wood said.

The new center is one of several campus developments in downtown Altoona over the last decade, including the Devorris Downtown Center, the Aaron Building and the Kazmaier Family Building. The buildings house programs in continuing education, state-of-the-art communications and nursing laboratories, hotel suites for visiting dignitaries and “The Dining Car Downtown,” a cyber café for students.

“One of our main needs is space: classroom space, studying and gathering space for students, and faculty office and research space, for example,” said campus Chancellor Lori Bechtel-Wherry about expanding into downtown. “At the time, it was clear there would be a need to garner private support to build new buildings or to make renovations and we have been successful in so doing. And we could renovate these beautiful buildings in downtown Altoona at a fraction of the cost it would have been to build new structures.”

Bob Scholl, center city coordinator for the Greater Altoona Economic Development Corporation, said use of existing buildings is “huge” in revitalization efforts.

“Economically speaking, I think we have shown them we can redevelop a property in a way that is way more cost-effective for them,” Scholl said. “We have some buildings here that have some very solid bones, if you will. It’s much easier to work with that than it is to work from ground zero.”

Bechtel-Wherry said campus advisory board member John Kazmaier, for whom one downtown building is named, first showed her the potential in the Aaron Building, a renovation project about one-fifth of the cost of building from scratch, at $3.2 million.

“He showed me the Aaron Building, which had been vacant for many, many years,” she said. “When entering the building we stepped over all manner of debris, including pigeon carcasses, and we donned hard hats and carried flashlights. John asked me to envision what the building could become and how it might address, in part, our space needs.”

The building now holds the communications program, the hotel suites and the cyber café, among other programs.

Marty Marasco, president and chief executive officer of the Altoona Blair County Development Corp., said he’s starting to see others invest in downtown Altoona with more potential investments on the horizon. Bill Sell’s Bold Restaurant and Krom Dance Club and Bar opened on 11th Avenue this year and Marasco looks to see more positive development. “I think a lot of this can be attributed to the investments Penn State is making in our area,” he said. “There’s no question that Penn State’s presence has had a great benefit to the downtown and to the city of Altoona – and for the whole county and region, for that matter.”

Bechtel-Wherry said she and other campus officials will consider other opportunities downtown as they appear, as well as continued expansion on the Ivyside Park campus, as funding is available.

“Our mission is based on teaching, research and service,” she said. “I just addressed the freshman class and talked about giving back to our community in positive ways. We had 900 students last spring working on specific projects in our community. It’s about making our community a better place to live. I’m proud of our contributions to our community.”

Power of 32 aims to capture and encourage a regional vision

Harry Zimbler — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 16:38:28 +0000

Region — The Power of 32 is a regional organization that is attempting to develop a regional economic and cultural vision across 32 counties in four states. The population of this region tops 4.2 million.

The Power of 32, created and funded by five Pittsburgh-based foundations, was formally created in May of 2009.

Allen Kukovich, who spent 27 years in the Pennsylvania state legislature representing Westmoreland County, serves as regional chair of the organization.

“The presidents of five western Pennsylvania foundations wanted to learn about the most effective way to use their philanthropy,” Kukovich said. “Meetings were held at the Institute of Politics at the University of Pittsburgh and some people suggested we try regional visioning here. It had been done in Utah and North Carolina,” among other places.

The Power of 32 recently entered into what Kukovich called “the listening phase.” A series of small “community conversations” are being held throughout the region to assess what’s on the minds of the citizens.

Thus far the sessions have been productive and constructive. “We want to give everyone in the region a chance to bounce their opinion off the group,” Kukovich said. “We are trying to get people to think long-term.”

The goal is to make the 32-county region a thriving, pleasant place to live and work. Included in the effort is the development of a strategy for economic development.

Not everyone agrees with the concept or Kukovich’s optimistic assessment of the Power of 32’s potential.

“I think it’s a waste of somebody’s money,” said Jake Haulk, Ph.D., economist and president of the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. “The major problem is that it is such a wide area with disparate government structures.

Having four states complicates things enormously. It’s a Herculean task to get agreement on anything. They tried this ‘metropolitanization’ in Pittsburgh and it didn’t work. Now they think that by casting their nets wider it will. You’re going to end up with hundreds of different views that can never be pulled together.”

The Power of 32 creators see this “largest regional visioning project ever” as a way to create a more economically competitive area. The counties in the region share a common history and industrial past, a common workforce, and common assets including universities, health care systems and natural resources.

“Our interests are aligned,” said Kukovich. “Regionalization is the only way to compete in a global economy.

“In two months we will move into a consensus building phase,” said Kukovich. “There will be data analysis and issues identified. We will create an achievable agenda and then prioritize it. By the end of ten months we will hopefully create a shared vision and empower the counties to achieve it. We want to get sign off from as many people as we can, including the governors of the four states.”

Kukovich acknowledges that a major challenge for the Power of 32 is the mindset of the region that dates back more than a century. “It’s natural for policy makers to think short term,” he said. “There are going to be problems between municipalities that may not be that far apart. We may even deal with something that happened at a football game in the 1950s.”

In selecting the 32 counties in the region, the organizers took a number of factors into account. These included transportation, common media markets, geography, and cultural concerns.

“Pittsburgh is driving this and it’s their agenda,” said Haulk. “Some of them actually believe that multi-county planning hasn’t worked because they never had enough counties. This is an uphill battle, at best. They couldn’t get 11 counties around Allegheny to agree. People can only fight so many battles. Let’s just say that when all is said and done, more will be said then done. Tell me what they’re going to fix in Allegany County, Maryland’s transportation system that is going to make the people of Mahoning County, Ohio happy?” Kukovich believes that there is now an understanding that counties need to be collaborative to succeed in fighting for jobs and government dollars. “I have been encouraged that people see that,” he said.

“To me it all seems like a fool’s errand,” said Haulk.

Pennsylvania eggs safer Penn State program reduces Salmonella risk in eggs

admin — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 06:46:56 +0000

University Park — Although a Salmonella scare and egg recall is taking place across much of the country, Pennsylvania-produced eggs are safer to eat, according to poultry experts in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences.

That’s thanks to a program Penn State researchers helped Keystone State egg producers start almost two decades ago, which was the model for the national program to guard against egg contamination implemented just this July.

“If the federal regulations to protect against Salmonella contamination of eggs had been in place earlier, the current outbreak and egg recall may not have occurred,” said Paul Patterson, professor of poultry science.

Pennsylvania was the first state in the nation to institute steps to reduce the risk of Salmonella enteritidis with flock-testing and management programs in 1992.

Durable goods, manufacturers’ shipments, up slightly in July

PBC Staff — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 06:44:12 +0000

Washington, DC — New orders for manufactured durable goods in July increased $0.6 billion or 0.3 percent to $193.0 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau announced. This increase followed two consecutive monthly decreases including a 0.1 percent June decrease. Excluding defense, new orders increased 0.3 percent. Transportation equipment, also up following two consecutive monthly decreases, had the largest increase, $6.1 billion or 13.1 percent to $52.6 billion. This was due to non-defense aircraft and parts, which increased $4.0 billion.

Shipments of manufactured durable goods in July, up four of the last five months, increased $4.4 billion or 2.2 percent to $200.6 billion. This followed a 0.2 percent June increase. Transportation equipment, also up four of the last five months, had the largest increase, $3.4 billion or 6.9 percent to $52.7 billion.

Unfilled orders for manufactured durable goods in July, down following three consecutive monthly increases, decreased $1.1 billion or 0.1 percent to $802.8 billion. This followed a 0.1 percent June increase. Computers and electronic products, down following four consecutive monthly increases, had the largest decrease, $0.5 billion or 0.4 percent to $121.1 billion.

Inventories of manufactured durable goods in July, up seven consecutive months, increased $1.8 billion or 0.6 percent to $311.2 billion. This followed a 1.3 percent June increase. Machinery, up five consecutive months, had the largest increase, $0.9 billion or 1.9 percent to $51.4 billion.

Non-defense new orders for capital goods in July decreased $1.8 billion or 2.8 percent to $64.1 billion. Shipments increased $0.9 billion or 1.4 percent to $64.7 billion. Unfilled orders decreased $0.6 billion or 0.1 percent to $487.2 billion. Inventories increased $1.0 billion or 0.8 percent to $129.8 billion. Defense new orders for capital goods in July decreased $0.2 billion or 2.2 percent to $9.5 billion. Shipments decreased $0.2 billion or 2.4 percent to $9.5 billion. Unfilled orders decreased slightly to $139.7 billion. Inventories increased slightly or 0.1 percent to $17.9 billion.

New Residential Sales Down in July

PBC Staff — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 06:40:58 +0000

Washington, DC — Sales of new single-family houses in July 2010 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 276,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 12.4 percent (±10.8%) below the revised June rate of 315,000 and is 32.4 percent (±8.7%) below the July 2009 estimate of 408,000.

The median sales price of new houses sold in July 2010 was $204,000; the average sales price was $235,300. The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of July was 210,000. This represents a supply of 9.1 months at the current sales rate.