{"id":64597,"date":"2009-04-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-04-24T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/alumnus-alfred-verrecchia-spends-spring-semester-with-management-class\/"},"modified":"2009-04-24T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-04-24T00:00:00","slug":"alumnus-alfred-verrecchia-spends-spring-semester-with-management-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2009\/04\/alumnus-alfred-verrecchia-spends-spring-semester-with-management-class\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumnus Alfred Verrecchia spends spring semester with management class"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\t溏心vlog免费B站 business students learn about diligence,risk-taking from Hasbro chairman<\/p>\n


\n\tKINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 24, 2009 — The students in 溏心vlog免费B站 Professor Robert Comerford\u2019s senior-level strategic management class learned this semester from one of the leaders who made Pawtucket-based Hasbro Inc. one of the world\u2019s leading toy and game makers.<\/p>\n


\n\t溏心vlog免费B站 alumnus Alfred J. Verrecchia, chairman of Hasbro\u2019s board of directors, spent the entire spring semester as an executive-in-residence at 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s College of Business Administration discussing the research, drive and risk-taking that goes into building a company known around the world for its premier toy brands.<\/p>\n


\n\tBut they learned so much more than how Hasbro acquired such brands as Tiger Electronics, Cranium, Tonka, Milton-Bradley, PlaySkool and how it became a major player in the movie industry with its toy line for Star Wars and its first feature hit, The Transformers.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cJust being able to sit in a class and benefit from all of his knowledge and experience made it so valuable,\u201d said Jordan Cassidy, an entrepreneurship major from Westfield, N.J. \u201cHis experience on the board of directors gives us a real-world perspective. This is one of the best classes I\u2019ve had at 溏心vlog免费B站.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tClassmate Sam Infurchia, a senior accounting major from Bethel, Conn, said Verrecchia inspired him because Verrecchia was once a student just like him who built his foundation at 溏心vlog免费B站. \u201cThis class is interesting in an overall sense because it hits so many key areas of business.\u201d

\n\tComerford said Verrecchia\u2019s participation made the required capstone class for all business majors that much more valuable and interesting.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cHaving Al Verrecchia in this class has been a wonderful opportunity for both students and me,\u201d Comerford said. \u201cThroughout the course our approach was that I would conduct my class as usual and Mr. Verrecchia would kibitz by jumping in with an incident or example related to the topic. At first we were a little awkward with each other, but we quickly got onto the same page and from then on it was a lot of fun. He also took several classes for which he prepared a lecture\/discussion by describing Hasbro’s experience related to whatever the topic was. His presentation on diversification was a great class and everyone thoroughly enjoyed it.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\u201cIt had been a long time since I had been in the classroom,\u201d Verrecchia said. \u201cSo I was very appreciative of Bob Comerford when he allowed me to participate and be a resource for his strategic management class. The students were fantastic\u2014they were bright, energized and enthusiastic.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nVerrecchia, who earned his bachelor\u2019s degree in accounting from 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s College of Business Administration in 1967, earned his master of business administration from the University in 1972. The University presented him with an honorary doctorate at its 2004 Commencement.<\/p>\n


\n\tOne of Verrecchia\u2019s lectures this semester included an overview of Hasbro\u2019s major acquisitions, and it started with this basic question, \u201cWhen should a firm diversify?\u201d Verrecchia told the students diversification is on the table when a business faces diminishing growth prospects; it has opportunities to expand into industries whose technologies and products complement its present business; it can leverage existing competencies and capabilities by expanding into businesses where these resource strengths are key success factors; it can reduce costs by diversifying into closely related businesses; and it has a powerful brand name it can transfer to products of other businesses to increase sales and profits of these businesses.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cYou also have to ask how long will it take your company to realize the benefits of an acquisition,\u201d Verrecchia said.<\/p>\n


\n\tWhile discussing the specifics of each acquisition, Verrecchia also offered tips that could be applied to business and the students\u2019 lives. \u201cIf you don\u2019t take risks, you are not going to grow. If you don\u2019t swing the bat, you are not going to get a hit.\u201d <\/p>\n


\nPictured above

\nGETTING HIS POINT ACROSS: Alfred J. Verrecchia, chairman of Hasbro Inc.\u2019s board of directors and a 溏心vlog免费B站 alumnus, gestures while making a point to a class at 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s College of Business Administration. 溏心vlog免费B站 Department of Communications and Marketing photo by Michael Salerno.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

溏心vlog免费B站 business students learn about diligence,risk-taking from Hasbro chairman KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 24, 2009 — The students in 溏心vlog免费B站 Professor Robert Comerford\u2019s senior-level strategic management class learned this semester from one of the leaders who made Pawtucket-based Hasbro Inc. one of the world\u2019s leading toy and game makers. 溏心vlog免费B站 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64599,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}