“If you can’t use it tomorrow, we’re not talking about it tonight.”

Students enrolling in Rick Howell’s courses learn business theories with the promise that the learning can be used immediately. Rick designs learning activities that business managers confront daily.  These practical exercises prepare students for work situations they will encounter and illustrate how the book material translates from class to the work environment.  For example, reviewing a job offer in a distant city requires students to consider the relevant variables, gather data, and analyze the findings. Another exercise involves drastically changing a fictitious company’s culture.  And yet another creates a recipe to recruit, hire, and train the staff required to rapidly expand the organization.  Asking ‘how is that done?’ promotes self-discovery and life-long learning habits.

Rick owns Howell Management Consulting, a business venture that enhances his personal learning by keeping him current and ahead of textbooks. His experiences are translated into continuous examples, scenarios, and situations helping students develop expertise and insight into applications that make big differences in the work place.  He highlights the implementation of an idea; a task that text books have difficulty describing, yet students practice in Rick’s classes. Students rate Howell as one of the best teachers at WSU Vancouver receiving consistently high student reviews.

Courses Taught: Management & Organization; Managing Human Resources; Recruiting & Hiring Human Capital; Evaluating & Rewarding Employees; Operations Management. 

Special thanks to Ray William for authoring this post!