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Leeds MBA Program Jumps 13 Points in Bloomberg Businessweek Rankings
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University of Colorado Boulder Leeds School of Business ranked No. 67 for its full-time MBA program, according to Bloomberg Businessweek’s 2018 rankings. The ranking is 13 points ahead of last year’s 80th placement.
When ranked only among public universities, Leeds rose to No. 29.
In the entrepreneurship category, the school ranked No. 10 overall, reflecting its Boulder and Front Range location’s access to a vibrant entrepreneurial business community with many venture capital and startup opportunities. Along with the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship, students have a strong network of connections and resources that enables them to excel.
Leeds attributes the significant rise in Bloomberg’s ranking to recent program enhancements, increased engagement and partnerships with the business community, and new faculty hires. Over the last two years, the school added faculty from noted universities including Berkeley, Northwestern, Wharton, London Business School, and Harvard.
Recently, Leeds partnered with more than 70 key business leaders and influencers, locally and globally, to understand essential skills and attributes students will need in the 21st century workplace.
“We are very proud of this momentum,” said Dean Sharon Matusik, “But we consider it just the beginning.” Matusik credits the teaching and research ability of a world-class faculty for Leeds success. “The classroom learning combined with access to our business community—which is known around the world for being entrepreneurial, innovative and with an orientation toward creating both economic and social value—provides a distinctive educational experience that prepares our graduates to positively transform the future of business.”
This year Bloomberg modernized the ranking methodology for business schools to assess MBA program value from the perspective of graduating students, recent alumni, and recruiting companies. Assessments are organized into four categories based on importance to respondents: Compensation, Learning, Networking and Entrepreneurship.
Bloomberg senior editor, Caleb Solomon, says this lets stakeholders decide critical factors for success. Bloomberg used the results and compensation data as building blocks for calculating overall ranking.
For more about University of Colorado Boulder’s Leeds School of Business, visit https://www.colorado.edu/business/
To see Bloomberg rankings visit http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2015-best-business-schools/
Originally posted here by Tom Kalinski Founder RE/MAX of Boulder on Tuesday, December 4th, 2018 at 2:26pm.
What Makes a Smart City Smart?
Boulder is known for its highly educated, technology-oriented citizenry. The city is even ranked No. 1 nationally in the “Bloomberg Brain Concentration Index,” which tracks business formation as well as employment and education in the sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
But does that make Boulder a smart city? Not according to Colorado Smart Cities Alliance (CSCA). CSCA might summarize a smart city as an environment that works well for the people who live in it.
Specifically, CSCA defines a smart city “as an environment that enables all of us to effectively and efficiently live, work, and play. It leverages advancements in science and technology to create an area that is intelligent about strategic and tactical needs and wants of all the constituents.”
Boulder, Longmont, and Fort Collins are among a dozen cities along the Front Range that are founding members of the CSCA. Founded in 2017 by the Denver South Economic Development, CSCA is an open, collaborative, and active platform where stakeholders work to collaborate on continually improving the region’s economic foundations for future generations. The initiative aims to make Colorado a leader in the development of intelligent infrastructure. The goal is to accelerate the development of statewide Smart City initiatives that will improve our play, family, and work lives, from transportation and housing to public safety and the environment.
In ColoradoBiz Magazine, DesignThinkingDenver’s CEO Joe Hark Harold says, smart cities could design systems that save water and energy, reduce traffic and traffic congestion, lessen crime, better prepare for disasters, provide better connections between business and customers, and even manage the lights remotely.
There is urgency behind this movement, driven by an increase of those who live in urban environments. More than three million additional people are expected to move to Colorado by 2050 — an increase of more than 50 percent from 2015, according to the Colorado State Demography Office. Coupled with the growth the state has already experienced, the projected increase has spurred community leaders to collaborate on finding innovative, cost-effective ways to better monitor, manage, and improve infrastructure and public services.
“The Colorado Smart Cities Alliance is advancing policies and technologies that will better equip Colorado residents to live, work, and play in a future that is increasingly being shaped by the complex challenges of urban growth,” says Jake Rishavy, vice president of innovation at the Denver South Economic Development Partnership. “We’re working to create a 21st-century technology infrastructure right here in Colorado that will help to enhance everyone’s quality of life, particularly as our communities continue to grow.”
Among its activities, CSCA hosts regular “Civic Labs” events around the state to share challenges, expertise and solutions. At the Denver Smart City Forum in June, speakers described “smart” technology as having to be about the people who use it and benefit from it, that is, human-centered design and thinking.
“People, not technology, will create smart cities,” said Colorado’s Chief Innovation Officer Erik Mitisek.
To find out more and get involved in the Colorado Smart Cities Alliance, visit http://coloradosmart.city/
For more about the recent forum and DesignThinkingDenver, read http://www.cobizmag.com/Trends/Smart-Cities-Arent/ and http://www.cobizmag.com/Trends/Denver-Digs-Deep-on-Smart-City-Development-and-Implementation/
Originally posted here by Tom Kalinski Founder RE/MAX of Boulder on Wednesday, September 26th, 2018 at 11:31am.
Where will Boulder’s workforce of the future live?
The Boulder Economic Summit was held on May 22 and the focus was on the workforce of the future. The Boulder Economic Council rightly identified this as a key to Boulder County’s continued vitality and prosperity. There were vibrant discussions about the growing importance of skills to both employers and employees, shifting employment patterns, how businesses can embrace Millennials, and more.
From a real estate perspective, the most thought provoking session was the roundtable discussion on “Addressing Housing and Transportation,” in which participants were asked to discuss what their businesses are experiencing in terms of housing and mobility needs, what they are doing to address them, and what possible solutions they see. From this discussion, it became evident that the majority of many businesses’ employees live outside the city, that many of those employees would like to live in Boulder, and that there are myriad housing and transportation challenges facing businesses and employees.
Many of the proposed solutions will sound familiar: some additional housing, including ADUs (“granny flats”) throughout the city and multi-family housing in the light industrial areas along the east Arapahoe corridor; adding additional lanes to some of the major arteries to/from Boulder, especially along Arapahoe/Highway 7 and the Diagonal; more and “better placed” park-n-ride lots; more parking spaces throughout the city; more and better alternative transportation options, and possibly some shared shuttle services among Boulder businesses.
Many participants expressed the opinion that they believe some of these solutions are viable, but they acknowledged that most of them would require the willingness and coordination of city and county governments. The scope of these issues is supported by the estimated 50,000 — 60,000 people who commute into Boulder for work each day, half of whom purportedly want to live in the city, and the fact that currently there are no single family homes in Boulder on the market for less than $575,000 (and that only gets you 966 square feet).
The bottom line takeaway from this discussion was that if Boulder cannot find better ways to address its housing and transportation issues, it risks losing its economic vigor as more and more businesses will choose to relocate to more hospitable areas. More than one employer at the roundtable lamented that if they cannot solve some of these issues, they will likely have to move their business elsewhere.
Let’s face it, Boulder does not make it easy on businesses or their employees. Among other things, businesses in Boulder have to contend with sky-high affordable housing linkage fees on commercial development (which will ultimately be borne by tenants and consumers), complex and changing zoning and use regulations, rapidly growing commercial property taxes, and a dearth of parking spaces. Employees face a severe lack of affordable housing to purchase, expensive rent or long — and increasingly frustrating — commutes, and difficulty finding parking (and not enough public and alternative transportation options).
There is always room for hope in Boulder, one of the brainiest (and best) cities in America, and an excellent example is the city council’s recent openness to allowing additional ADUs. It’s not a panacea, but it’s a start.
Envisioning our workforce of the future is a great and useful undertaking, but if Boulder cannot (or will not) address its mounting housing and transportation issues, the workforce of the future will be happily employed… elsewhere.
Jay Kalinski is broker/owner of Re/Max of Boulder.
Originally posted by BizWest on Wednesday, June 1st, 2018. Original found here.
Boulder-area market holding steady, proving strong demand eclipses low inventory
It’s beginning to look a lot like this year’s Boulder County real estate sales performance will outperform last year’s robust close. Year-over-year sales data for 2017 shows slight improvements compared to 2016, even with inventory at persistently low levels.
“It just proves that demand is strong and consistent,” says Ken Hotard, senior vice president of public affairs for the Boulder Area Realtor® Association.
Single-family home sales in the Boulder area improved 2.1 percent year-to-date through November 2017 compared to the prior year – 4,224 homes sold vs. 4,138.
And the sale of 1,377 condominiums and townhomes through November represented a 5.5 percent gain compared to the prior year’s 1,305 units sold.
“We saw year-over-year sales improvements, but the pull-back in November compared to October was more than average,” says Hotard.
He’s referring to the 7.9 percent drop in single-family home sales in November compared to October — 359 vs. 390 homes sold. Attached dwellings sold decreased 2.4 percent month-over-month with 123 units sold vs. 126.
Since the weather was excellent for house hunting, the pullback is likely indicative of more than the typical seasonal slowdown.
“Inventory is probably the culprit in the November pullback this year, which resulted in not only fewer sales, but also a softening of prices,” he says. When it comes to low inventory, there is “no end is in sight for the foreseeable future.”
Hotard believes price-softening is confined to higher end homes where inventories are larger and homes take twice as many days on the market before selling. “Lower priced homes are not affected,” he adds.
While buyer demand is strong, low inventory can’t supply that demand. November’s inventory is telling: Single-family homes for sale in the Boulder-area dropped 22.8 percent in November compared to October with 777 homes for sale vs. 1,006. Condos and townhomes felt the pinch slightly harder with a 24.7 percent drop for the month of November – 146 units vs. 194.
Mortgage interest deductions may diminish in importance as a result of the doubling of the standard deduction as part of recent tax reform legislation. The National Association of Realtors predicts only a small percent of homeowners will take advantage of the mortgage interest deduction in years to come because of that change.
*Photo courtesy of Edwin Andrade on Unsplash.com
Originally posted here by Tom Kalinski Founder RE/MAX of Boulder on Friday, January 5th, 2018 at 10:15am.
