Amy Hillman, W. P. Carey School of Business

Having your own business has long been a part of the American dream, even more so now given the recent employment market. But starting a business and nurturing it to success requires a multitude of skills.

To succeed, you’ll benefit from knowing the basics of business — but even business degrees won’t be enough if you don’t have a unique strategy that creates value. You’ll also need a lot of passion, energy and endless workdays. Having a great team will make it better than going alone.

Dr. Amy Hillman is the Rusty Lyon Chair of Strategy and Dean of the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. She received her Ph.D. from Texas A&M University in Strategic Management and Business and Public Policy. She is a former editor of Academy of Management Review and a former associate editor of Academy of Management Journal. Her research has been published in leading scholarly journals.

As educators of the business leaders of today and tomorrow, we know that whether our students start their own businesses or make their careers in others’, technical skills are essential to success. But the technical skills will change over time, necessitating life-long learning, and in the end, it’s the soft skills like leadership, teamwork, motivating others and being a strong communicator that will make your career.

For this issue’s cover story, In Business Magazine breaks down what it takes to build a healthy business into 10 components, all of which are vital to success. Leading professionals share with In Business Magazine editor RaeAnne Marsh insights in their realm of expertise, providing a focused discussion on the “Top 10 Best Strategies for Business Success.” In sidebars that accompany the article, four other of our community’s most notable business leaders share a tip from their experience.

A survey of women and Millennials in leadership roles is the basis of this issue’s “By the Numbers” feature, in which Sue Kern-Fleischer looks at the impact of those two populations on a business’s performance. In the “Communicate” article, communication expert Geoffrey Tumlin, Ph.D., addresses the importance of face-to-face communication skills that he sees “getting rusty” as we increasingly rely on electronic devices, and suggests strategies to strengthen them. And the three-part Healthcare series to help business owners prepare themselves and their employees for the upcoming federal open enrollment period concludes with insightful and provocative content in “Healthcare: A Tool to Strengthen Productivity.”

This issue also presents “Workforce & Education” — a special section that is a guide to career opportunities in Arizona, with profiles of learning institutions and trade organizations and programs they provide to advance a skilled work force for business.

Each issue of In Business Magazine provides content on a wide range of topics aimed at helping strengthen business in our community. I’m pleased to present this November issue and hope you enjoy it.

Sincerely,

Amy Hillman, Ph.D.
Dean
W. P. Carey School of Business
Arizona State University