Product of Opportunity

By Vincent J. Coons

            Wednesday, November 6, 2013 BUS 201 had a special guest speaker, Ryan Boland. Mr. Boland studied at Malone University where he obtained a MBA(Masters of Business Administration) degree, although a lot of his success he credits to being a product of opportunity. Mr. Boland is currently the Director of AVI foods at GCC. AVI foods ranks #8 in relation to the top food service management companies in the United States of America. Mr. Boland has been the director here at GCC for about six months. In fact you just may have run into him at the GCC cafeteria.

            Mr. Boland spoke about the different personalities that people have. The four distinct personalities are, Dominant; Influential, Steady, and Conscientious (the personality in which I consider myself); which form the acronym DISC. In Professional Sales, Mr. Dudkowski has taught us that communication is the main ingredient to success. Mr. Boland stressed upon that idea and more so with the ideas of how to communicate with distinct personalities of salespeople or customers depending on their specific personality.

            For example Mr. Boland stated that a person with a Dominant personality is someone who wants to take authority, so telling a person with a dominant personality what to do, isn’t always the greatest of ideas. Mr. Boland said the more effective way to talk business with a dominant personality is to get to the point, don’t ramble, or engage in small talk, keep it business oriented if you are conducting business with this person. Mr. Boland also gave an example of how to communicate with a conscientious person. Conscientious people like dominant ones, want to get to the point, they want the information straight forward, and will analyze the information and devise a plan accordingly, where as the dominant person would respond with an answer quickly and decisively. Mr. Boland utilizes the skills of analyzing people’s personalities, and communicating with them accordingly on a daily basis, whether it be with a student, an employee, or potential business partner selling products to him.

            In Professional Sales, we’ve had a few guest speakers, ranging from salespeople, to marketing director, but this is the first time the class has gotten a glimpse into the side of the customer (from the side of business to business anyway). Mr. Boland deals with various companies including but not limited to; PepsiCo, Starbucks, and Tim Horton’s. Mr. Boland stated that these companies often come in and try to sell new products currently being promoted. It is his job to find out which promotional items can actually make him money or not. So conducting research on what the students at GCC really enjoy is an important element to his job. For those wondering (which for some, you may not need to wonder) the top selling item AVI foods sells at GCC are their chicken tenders (mmmmm chicken tenders *drool*).

            Mr. Boland was a very informative, and kind guest speaker, whom really showed insight on how things are handled on the business side of our very own cafeteria. Mr. Boland reiterated many lessons already taught by Mr. Dudkowski, and taught some of his own. I appreciate Mr. Boland for his sacrifice of time to speak with the class and for the free goodies he brought with him to make our morning just a little more delightful, and thank him tremendously on behalf of myself and the whole class.