The Managing Forward Series are online courses to reinforce and strengthen your small business for the future. Hosted by the Missouri SBDC and facilitated by subject matter experts from the Henry W. Bloch School of Management at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, with examples from Missouri businesses. The series is funded by the Cares Act in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Learn from academic experts and connect with small business owners. 90-minute courses.

October 1 - November 12, 2020 - Full series registration here
Complete 4 of the 6 courses (not including Panel Q&A) to receive a Certificate of Completion from the Bloch School of Management Regnier Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation / Missouri SBDC.

October 1 - Disaster Planning for Small Businesses - Individual session registration
Instructor: Dr. Anthony Vatterott
According to the SBA, approximately 25 percent of businesses don't reopen after a major disaster. This course focuses on how small businesses can develop a plan for disaster management and recovery.

• Communications plan
• Continuity plan
• Risk assessment

October 8 - Maintaining Continuity and Effective Management of Small Businesses in Remote Environments - Individual session registration
Instructors: Jeff Hornsby, Alex Matlack, and Gary O'Bannon
This course focuses on effective business management practices when operating a business in remote environments. Special attention will be given to operating a business during a crisis.

• Maintaining culture and communications
• Working in teams
• Developing policies
• Human Resources

October 15 - Online Essentials for Small Businesses - Individual session registration
Instructor: Alan Weber
This course focuses on the essentials every business must work through for operating a business online.

• Online business models
• Design your online business model
• Create your online presence
• Guide your business with supporting systems

October 22 - Agile Marketing, Sales and E-commerce for Small Businesses - Individual session registration
Instructor: Alan Weber
This course focuses on developing an effective E-commerce strategy and plan that focuses on steps every business must work through to successfully market and sell using on-line tools with distributed customers, employees, and suppliers.

• Marketing and selling
• Distribution and delivery
• Robust web processes
• Customer service online

October 29 - Supply Chain Challenges for Small Businesses - Individual session registration
Instructor: Dr. Anthony Vatterott
This course explains how to integrate brick-and-mortar small businesses with online technologies and services to add flexibility and increase responsiveness. Supply chain, logistics, and analytics will be emphasized especially for businesses working in online platforms.

• Cash flow management
• Hiring and Talent Acquisition
• Increasing visibility and improving agility

November 5 - Essentials of Cybersecurity for Small Businesses - Individual session registration
Instructor: Bryan Boots
This course will describe the most effective steps to prevent attacks and provide actionable techniques that can be used to handle and prevent attacks. You will be instructed on a wide range of possible cyber-attacks and specific steps to manage them.

• Web apps, hardware, and software security
• Network, passwords and accounts security
• Payment Card Industry (PCI) standards
• Encryption basics

November 12 - Managing Forward series Live Q&A Panel - Individual session registration
To wrap up the series, participants can submit questions to be answered by a panel of instructors and facilitators from throughout the series

The Missouri SBDC is funded in part through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities will be made if requested at least two weeks in advance. Contact musbdcadmin@missouri.edu to request accommodations.

Instructor bios:

	Jeffrey S. Hornsby, Ph.D. holds the Henry Bloch/Missouri Endowed Chair of Entrepreneurship and Innovation and is a University of Missouri System Curator's Distinguished Professor. He the Executive Director of the Regnier Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and Chair of the Department of Global Entrepreneurship and Innovation. He is also Interim Chair of the Department of Management. He has authored or co-authored 801 refereed journal articles and 89 proceedings articles appearing in the top journals in entrepreneurship and management including Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal and Journal of Operations Management. Dr. Hornsby has coauthored seven books entitled: Corporate Innovation: Disruptive Thinking in Organizations, New Venture Management, Innovation Acceleration: Transforming Organizational Thinking, New Venture Management: The Entrepreneur's Roadmap, The Human Resource Function in Emerging Enterprises, Frontline HR: A Handbook for the Emerging Manager, and Training Systems Management. Dr. Hornsby is currently on the board of the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers and the Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization. He recently served as 2016 Conference Chair, Senior Vice President of Programming (Anaheim USASBE Conference), Co-Program-chair, and a member of the Executive Board of the United States Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE).
	Alan Weber is a member of the faculty at UMKC. He has taught since 2006 and is now an Assistant Teaching Professor. He teaches marketing and social media in the graduate and undergraduate programs. Alan brings a thorough understanding of theory into practice. He has broad experience in database marketing, sales, and service, working in both large and small companies as well as for non-profit organizations. He began consulting in 1994 with J. Schmid & Associates and has worked with hundreds of organizations over his career. Alan earned an MBA from the Bloch School of Business at the UMKC with an emphasis in Direct Marketing. He also earned a Professional Certificate in Nonprofit Fund Raising through the Midwest Center for Nonprofit Leadership at the Bloch School of Public Administration. He holds a bachelor's degree in Industrial Management from the Krannert School of Management at Purdue University. Alan Weber is Principal of Data to Strategy Group and Past President of the Kansas City Direct Marketing Association. Alan is author of three books, Event Driven Marketing, (Racom, 2010) co-authored with Egbert Jan van Bel and Ed Sanders, both of the Netherlands, Data-Driven Business Models (Thomson-Southwest, 2005) and co-author of Desktop Database Marketing (NTC Business Books, 1997). Alan's articles have been published in various magazines, including Target Marketing, DM News, and Catalog Age.
	Dr. Anthony Vatterott joined The Henry W. Bloch School of Management in 2019 as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Marketing and Supply Chain Management. Vatterott earned his Ph.D. of Business Administration in Logistics & Supply Chain Management with Marketing Emphasis from the University of Missouri Saint Louis. He earned his Master of Arts in Procurement & Acquisitions Management, his Master's Certificate in Government Contracting and his MBA from Webster University. Prior to coming to the Bloch School, Vatterott taught Sales and Marketing Management at University of Missouri Columbia and taught Supply Chain, Operations and Statistics courses at UMSL. His industry experience includes work on institutional and government large-scale construction projects, healthcare equipment manufacturing and installation and a wide range of marketing, advertising, publishing and media production roles. Vatterott's current research emphasizes text analytics and simulation, statistical modeling of workflows and operational activities, and optimization approaches considering practical business analysis and team-oriented skill development.
	Gary O'Bannon joined the Bloch School in 2012, teaching master's and undergraduate HR management and leadership curriculum, after teaching assignments at the University of Kansas and Avila University. Gary recently retired as the Director of Human Resources for the City of Kansas City, Missouri after 34-years of public service, managing a staff of 45 professionals coordinating a comprehensive human resource program for approximately 5,000 employees. He holds an undergraduate degree in Communications and a Master of Arts in Human Resources Management, in addition to graduate certifications from both the Harvard and Michigan State University Schools of Negotiation. During his tenure as HR Director, he served as a visiting instructor at George Washington University/Public Service School of Excellence in Washington, D.C., and the Maxwell School at Syracuse University in New York. He has published work on generational issues and been a frequent speaker at national, regional, and local conferences.
	Alex Matlack is the Director of E-Scholars and an Instructor in Entrepreneurship and Organizational Behavior. Formerly, she ran the Techstars Kansas City accelerator and worked for the Techstars ecosystem development team. Prior to that, she worked in research & policy at the Kauffman Foundation. Her expertise is in how startups can create organizations with functional cultures, prepare startup operations for scale, and leverage startup ecosystems. Alex has a master's degree from New York University in Organizational Behavior, Systems, and Analytics and a bachelor's degree in International Studies from the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
	Bryan Boots is Managing Director for Venture Creation with the Regnier Institute and Assistant Teaching Professor with the Bloch School of Management. He studied engineering undergraduate level at Kansas State University, engineering graduate level at Kansas State University and at University of Arkansas, and earned his MBA from the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC). In addition to his role with UMKC, Bryan has worked for a number of technology and engineering companies ranging from startups to global corporations and has been a founder or co-founder in several businesses.