School of Business faculty brings wealth of experience to class

By Larne Boyles

Associate Professor David McKinney, Ph.D., follows a student as she approaches a classmate who’s sitting with his eyes closed. When she’s in front of him, he’s told to open his eyes and study the print advertisement she’s holding.

He has only 8 seconds – the same most people spend on an ad when they flip through a magazine, the professor says. McKinney carefully tracks the student’s eye movement to see what catches his attention as he quickly scans the page pitching a woman’s watch.

The purpose of the exercise, taught in McKinney’s Fundamentals of Marketing class at GIA’s School of Business, is for students to learn how to create more effective advertisements by studying their peers’ reactions. 

The exercise is repeated several times with various students before McKinney makes his point: males are drawn to specific visual aspects of advertisements – a woman’s face, her bare back, the watch she’s wearing. Women are drawn to the overall message – how well the images, colors and text come together.

“That’s stereotyping,” scoffs one female student.

“That’s marketing,” McKinney replies.

The class is one of more than a dozen college-level courses at GIA’s School of Business taught by highly qualified staff, including two Ph.D.s.: McKinney and Tim Malone. What sets GIA’s program apart from other universities, however, is that students learn real world business skills specifically applied to their interest: the jewelry industry.

“We see many students come to GIA with this great passion for jewelry, but no business education,” says Brook Ellis, vice president of GIA Education. “They think that passion is all they need to succeed, but the reality is they need to learn business management principles, too. Our School of Business offers students the professional and practical knowledge they need to succeed.”

GIA launched the School of Business in 2002 as the first diploma program specifically geared to teach an insider’s perspective on how to succeed in the industry. Because the material differed so greatly from the Graduate Gemologist or Jewelry Manufacturing Arts diploma programs, a new curriculum had to be created and Institute officials had to find qualified staff with the right teaching skills.

That’s when university professors McKinney and Malone were hired. Both men quickly adapted their teaching experience to the gem and jewelry industry. But experience wasn’t all they had to offer. They also brought a passion for teaching that turned out to be the right fit for GIA’s School of Business.

Specially Tailored Classes
Malone sees the unique opportunity the School of Business offers students.

“The great thing about GIA is that, unlike other colleges, where a business class might have students from several different disciplines, everyone is focused on the same subject,” he says.

Prior to earning his Ph.D. in marketing and becoming a professor, Malone worked in sales and marketing for 25 years. His accomplishments ranged from the design and manufacture of new products to serving as a regional sales manager and vice president of sales.

Malone uses his extensive experience to help students in his GIA Visual Merchandising courses. Even though he’s had a successful career outside the classroom, Malone says he prefers the experience and interaction he gets with his students.
 
“I consider myself a lifelong student of marketing because it’s always changing,” he says. “That’s why GIA’s School of Business is so exciting. The program grows every day with the dynamic interaction between students and professors.”

It’s one thing to interact with students in the classroom, but School of Business courses are also available online. It can be tricky to measure a student’s level of engagement, but it challenges Malone’s creativity as an instructor, he says.

“When you teach an online course, you can’t get direct feedback by reading a student’s facial reactions. It’s my responsibility to create ways to deliver a positive learning experience to every single student,” Malone says.

He does this at the beginning of the course by analyzing each student’s objective and the segment of the industry they work in, then tailoring his correspondence through e-mail or chat room discussions.

“I may not be standing right in front of them, but I can help them find the wealth of information that’s available online.”

Applicable Knowledge 
McKinney began his professional career as an architect, but moved on to other careers, including senior leadership roles in several financial companies. He also served as the owner/partner of the National Alliance of Financial Services.

He taught for more than 20 years at universities around the southwestern United States, in fields ranging from ecology to statistics. He’s lectured on a wide variety of business topics, such as entrepreneurship, management, and economics, all of which relate to the courses he teaches at GIA.

“Jewelry is emotional,” he says. “People often buy it to celebrate a special moment in life. I try to teach my students to focus on that celebration or moment rather than the actual piece in their marketing approach. You don’t always get these emotional connections in other industries.”

Practical, applicable experience is the goal of GIA’s School of Business. So how does McKinney judge it?

“I’ll know I’ve succeeded when I someday read about my students in JCK,” he says.