Business Admin Degree Leads To Unique Job Opportunity In Sacramento
The greater Sacramento region is gaining speed as a vibrant hub in the California business arena. With the state capitol as a backdrop, the area welcomes entrepreneurs and those seeking to expand existing businesses. The reach of businesses here spans the state and nation, and has worldwide connections. Competent, well-educated managers are an absolute must for new and existing businesses to succeed in such a lively market.
George Usi has been president of Sacramento Technology Group for the past 11 years. His college years were spent at CSUS going through a variety of majors. He graduated with a bachelor of arts in business administration, strategic management in 2002. His experience at Sac State directly translated into a program that the Sacramento Technology Group has honed to a sharp edge since then, and still uses.
How many majors did you go through before you settled on your degree major?
"I studied business administration, marketing, accountancy, management information systems and ended with a B.A. in business administration, strategic management."
How has your education been of benefit to you in your field?
"It has been critical. I customized a Strategic Management Audit, learned at CSUS, and assisted local businesses who were struggling with investing in technology. We continue to assist customers so they understand that technology is a strategy rather than a cost. We help them retool their business processes about the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) identified by the audit. Notably, convincing them to make technology strategic would have been very difficult without being able to reference the audit as an academic management standard they could relate to. I specifically recall the moment I came up with the idea to use the CSUS strat audit as a starting point for building my own technology-focused strategic audit as part of our new outsourced I.T. consulting model."
Could you have gotten to where you are today without your education?
"No. Three educators, in all phases of my education, come to mind: Roger Chappell at Pinewood Elementary (Pollock Pines), Bob Steele at El Dorado High School (Placerville) and Jim Meinert at CSUS. All three made it clear that success was entirely up to me. When I came up with the idea to use the CSUS strategic audit, Jim Meinert told me that companies would pay for this, applying strategy to their situation. He was right then and still is. I have a multimillion dollar business in managing and selling technology to businesses because of this audit and his advice. We now use the audit as part of our on-boarding assessment for many of our mid-market customers. The audit also resulted in the creation of our 2003 tagline which, at the time, was 'Balancing Technology With Business Process.'"
Charles Ferris is a freelance writer who has lived in the Sierra, halfway between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe, for the last 37 years. In 2010 he retired from teaching after 36 years . He and his wife hike, kayak, cross country ski, snow shoe, ride mountain bikes and road bikes, year round. His work can be found at Examiner.com.
