Season 2 Episode 32
Unpacking Darla Moore’s Visit to the Moore School
This week's episode features Kasie’s weekday morning radio cohost Kevin Cohen at Make the Point Radio recapping September 15th’s special visit to the Moore School from namesake, Ms. Darla Moore.
Kasie is joined by her weekday morning cohost, Kevin Cohen, from Make the Point Radio, to recap a special September 15th visit to the Darla Moore School of Business by none other than its namesake, Darla Moore.
During her visit on Monday, September 15, 2025, Ms. Moore participated in a fireside chat with students, faculty, and Ph.D. candidates, where she highlighted the transformative role of artificial intelligence and the importance of process-based learning in shaping the next generation of business leaders.
Topics include:
To learn more about Darla Moore, click here.
To learn more about the Darla Moore School of Business, click here.
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Photo Courtesy: LinkedIn
Kasie Whitener (00:04):
Good morning, welcome into Moore Impact. My name is Kasie Whitener. I'm your host for our radio show that brings our scholars in from the Darla Moore School of Business to talk a little bit about what's happening in the business school and share that with our community here in Columbia, but also with the state of South Carolina and our nationwide audience on MakethePointradio.com. Uh, welcome to the program. I had a scheduling snafu with my original guest, uh, and so he's not here. So instead, what I'd like to do is unpack what happened yesterday at the Darla Moore School, which is when we were actually visited by Darla Moore herself. She came and spent some time with us, uh, but also glad to take calls if you all have some questions or you wanna talk a little bit about the Moore School, uh, we'll open up the Groucho's Deli phone lines eight zero three seven nine nine eight two five five eight zero three seven nine nine talk. And Kev has graciously agreed to sit in with me so I don't end up just monologuing.
Keven Cohen (00:53):
Well, you know, what's interesting, um, about this opportunity is I can kind of interview you a little bit about it and, and you, you mentioned you wanted to open it up to the phones, if you want to call in on the Groucho's line 7 9 9 82 55. Anything that you've heard Kasie talk about with any of her guests? You know, we've talked on, on this program, everything from tariffs to some of the things that come up on Wednesdays with the rep and how it impacts the state of South Carolina. And this community in particular. You guys, uh, over at the Moore Business School have a lot of debate and discussion about what's going on in the general assembly and how it affects public, uh, and, and the impact that it has on our public.
Kasie Whitener (01:30):
Yeah, and so I think now we get an opportunity to today kind of break down all the things we've talked about before and put those into context really for the make the point radio listeners.
Keven Cohen (01:39):
Right.
Kasie Whitener (01:39):
Right. So our, for our point family that maybe hasn't had a chance to call in before or participate in the show before, because as you know, we're, we're, uh, we take the recordings of those shows and we put them up as podcasts. And so if people do call in during the show, I usually take those calls off the air and then I'll take the question and then I'll ask it to our scholar while they're here in the room. Uh, and so yeah, this is an opportunity if, if those of you that have been listening for a while and you have some questions about some of the episodes that you heard before, by all means give us a call and, and we'll talk a little bit about it.
Keven Cohen (02:05):
You know, before you get into what, uh, Darla Moore said yesterday, when, which in and of itself, when Darla Moore speaks, everybody listens. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, I think people need to understand the impact she has had, uh, on obviously on USC School of Business, but also just in general. She is, uh, I think we said she, uh, uh, was was one of the first two women to ever be invited to play in Augusta.
Kasie Whitener (02:29):
Yes. She and Condoleezza Rice.
Keven Cohen (02:31):
Condoleezza Rice. Exactly. And so, I, I mean, when you're putting her in that co company of Condoleezza Rice and the first two women to be, uh, asked to join Augusta, that tells you the impact and the level of respect people have for Darla Moore. And, you know, she's more than just a song.
Kasie Whitener (02:48):
Yeah.
Keven Cohen (02:50):
No, my my point though is that, um, it's, there's a reason why this school has been able to attain the status it has in terms of, of international business school and its ranking of being the top international business school in America. Uh, that's, that's major, major, and of course, you work there. So that's something we're very proud of. Having someone who is a, a a teacher over at Darla Moore Business School. I, I, I love having that. But going back to what you do on this program and, and the purpose of this program, uh, if, if I were to say to you, Hey, somebody's listening that's never listened on a Tuesday at nine o'clock, what is the purpose of Moore Impact?
Kasie Whitener (03:25):
The idea that we had when we built the show was, let's bring the folks that are doing the scholarship, who are studying, looking at business, looking at policy, understanding kind of what's happening in the world of business. They do a lot of that work in, in kind of silos. Like really the only people, and Dr. Ozturk has talked about it when she's been here before. A lot of academic research stays inside academia land, and it never really gets disseminated as knowledge to other folks unless you're studying it, unless you come through the business program and you start to study it. So what we wanted to do was bring that, that knowledge here to the radio and share it with everybody so that everybody could benefit from what the scholars are doing over there. That was the original idea. And so our, that academic research is really a critical piece. And we talked, we have talked over the course of the year that we've been doing the show, we've talked to scholars in a number of disciplines who have brought their research in here and said, this is what I'm looking into. This is what I'm learning. This is what I'm finding, and these are the recommendations that we're making for policy. And so that research is really meant to affect how government responds to the changing business environment. And so that was really the goal was like, Hey, let's connect the scholars with the people so that people can benefit from what the scholars are learning. Um, but ultimately it also ended up being a chance for us to talk about all the really cool stuff that's happening at the Darla Moore School, because we've also had alumni come on here and talk about their journey and how the Darla Moore School impacted them. We've also had young people come in here and talk about the experience, why they chose the Darla Moore School and what that experience has been like for them. And then we've had practitioners that have come in that are just our educators, like Jeffrey Graybeal and Brandon Mendez, who've come in and talked about the innovations they're putting in the classroom. So it's just been a great opportunity, I think, to show off what we have as a citywide statewide asset in the Darla Moore School.
Keven Cohen (05:13):
I want people to think about it this way. If you look at what was, what you just described as what's going on within the, the confines of, of the school. And if you go back just, let's just say one calendar year and just how much has changed in one calendar year because of the change in administration. Because of the tariffs, because of the big, beautiful bill, all that kind of stuff. All that stuff has to be broken down and analyzed by some of the best economic minds in the country. And that's happening over at the Darla Moore School.
Kasie Whitener (05:40):
Well, It's happening in this studio.
Keven Cohen (05:41):
That's what I mean.
Kasie Whitener (05:41):
Yeah.
Keven Cohen (05:42):
So what I'm trying to say though is that you are in a, a discipline, you're in a field, you're in a building where it has got to be, have the ability to evolve very quickly, because what is happening in our country and really what happens in America happens in the world because we're the superpower. So what happens, uh, economically here sets the tone for the whole planet as a result of that. Uh, it, like I said, one year ago, it was a whole different animal than, than where we are now.
Kasie Whitener (06:10):
Yeah, well, as Darla said yesterday, academics are not exactly known for our fleetness foot. I mean, academia doesn't change at the rapid pace, and especially in a business school, you have to do a better job keeping up, like you've got to be able to change. So of all the disciplines at the University of South Carolina, I would say the one that is very dynamic, or is probably the most dynamic is probably the business school.
Keven Cohen (06:33):
Right.
Kasie Whitener (06:34):
'cause we're responding a lot to our business partners and the business environment, but it's still academia. And as I said, Dr. Ozturk came in and talked about research, the pace of research is very slow. It's, you know, let's initiate this, this research project, let's get all the approvals for it. Let's, you know, bring all of our participants in. Let's gather all of our data, let's analyze the data. And it can take years for a project like that to really come to fruition.
Keven Cohen (06:59):
Right.
Kasie Whitener (07:00):
And that slow pace of academic research is, I think, sometimes misunderstood on the outside as like, well, they're just not, they're just not moving fast enough. But really, it's just a matter of wanting to make sure you get it right. And if you go through the process that's been established, you're gonna get it. Right.
Keven Cohen (07:15):
Yeah. Now, there's sometimes where you can get it right and get it fast, but sometimes where you, if you go too fast, you're not gonna get it. Right.
Kasie Whitener (07:22):
Right.
Keven Cohen (07:22):
But then there's just sometimes where you don't have a choice but to go fast.
Kasie Whitener (07:24):
Yeah. And that's, uh, one of the mandates that she put in front of us yesterday was this AI, and she kept saying, it's here. It's already here. We're not on the cusp of a revolution in business. It's already here, and you're going to be overwhelmed by it if we're not putting the right, uh, mechanisms in place to train people and get them ready to be operating in this new AI driven world.
Keven Cohen (07:44):
So that's, and I hadn't even gone there yet, but, but that makes so much sense. I want people that are listening right now to the program to think about how AI is already impacting your life. I think about it for the common person, and, and, and when I say the common person, I include us.
Kasie Whitener (08:00):
Right.
Keven Cohen (08:01):
Um, what I mean by AI is, my frustration with AI is I don't know what I'm looking at anymore on social media if it's real or if it's not real. That's frustrating to me, very frustrating because I'm a journalist, uh, at heart. And so getting facts and getting them right is essential to me. And I don't like being manipulated by technology.
Kasie Whitener (08:23):
Right.
Keven Cohen (08:23):
That's so, so that's the negative side of the ai is it's being used in a way to falsify or to mislead. The, the thing that is remarkable about it is, I mean, anytime you ask anything on your phone or anything you type in, you could get an answer so quickly. And it's so in depth as in depth as you want it to be.
Kasie Whitener (08:41):
Yeah. It's Moore Impact. Kevin and I unpacking a little bit of what Darla Moore had to say yesterday at the Moore School. We'll be right back.
Kasie Whitener (09:01):
Welcome back to Moore Impact, Kasie Whitener, your host here as we talk about the Darla Moore School of Business and its, uh, effect and, and impact here on the Midlands. Um, here in the it, I think partly it's about being a local presence and simply having the school available to you, but the access to the school. How do people engage with the school? How do people participate with it? Yesterday, Darla Moore visited the Darla Moore School, and of course, all of us thanked her for being there. And she had a quite a bit to say. And one of the things she talked about was getting the local business community involved, get them engaged, make sure that they are participating in the life of the school in a way that not only are they contributing to our students' learning experience, but that we are giving to them in exchange. And honestly, we felt pretty good about it at the Faber Center because, uh, Dr. Graybeal and I who run the Faber Center, we do spend a lot of time with entrepreneurs and bring small businesses in and build projects for them and give them an opportunity to engage. But all of that's done kind of like on a networking basis, like a, who we know is who gets invited to be part of those things. So we could do a much better job of opening it up and saying, this is how people can engage with the Moore School.
Keven Cohen (10:06):
Well you think about small businesses and the services that are available to them, you know, like the SBA is there, there's others like 1 million Cups that you, you're involved with.
Kasie Whitener (10:16):
SBDC, SCORE and some of these others. Yeah.
Keven Cohen (10:19):
Right. There's some things that are out there for, but I mean, when you've got a resource like the Darla Moore School of Business right in your backyard, It, it's almost criminal if you don't have some access to it. If you're a small business owner and you need some consultation, or you need, it's almost criminal to not be able to say, well, how do I not tap into that some way? I mean, I just think about when I started this radio station, this is not, this is such a niche format of what we're talking about, because very few businesses are media driven, but I had no idea what I was doing. And there were so many things that had I gotten some guidance on, I I could have gotten a much better headstart and I could have gotten a much quicker path to where I wanted to be without having to guess or make mistakes. Um, from funding projects at the very beginning to just a, a, a business plan. And things like that, A lot of it was flying by the seat of my pants.
Kasie Whitener (11:09):
Right.
Keven Cohen (11:10):
So if, if I apply that to just anyone else who's got that entrepreneurial spirit, which many people have, they just don't know how to get from A to B.
Kasie Whitener (11:18):
Yeah.
Keven Cohen (11:18):
And it'd be nice to know that if I had that, I'd be able to call somebody over at the Darla Moore Business School and say, do you guys offer somebody that could sit down with me and help me? Or, or at least can you steer me in some resources around the Midlands area that that can help me?
Kasie Whitener (11:32):
Yeah. And we've got a couple of opportunities. I mean, there's a few, right? So in the Faber Entrepreneurship Center, we have our business classes, there's four of 'em. There's a sequence of entrepreneurship classes, and they do projects. And depending on which class you're involved with, is the intensity of the project. The challenge with that is, like, it's a semester long project. So usually, like ours just kicked, kicked off here in September, they'll be done by November. So it's gonna be, um, kind of a microcosm, something pretty small, but usually it's something that maybe you wanted to get done, but you just haven't been able to allocate the resources to it. And so the students will come in and they'll drive that project for you. Um, in other cases, it's that we have the consulting club. The consulting club can kind of work not necessarily on a semester basis, um, but they're always looking for projects that they can do too, where they can provide consultation and, uh, consultative services to individual businesses as well. And you can just come and like, bounce ideas off of. I think the, the difference is like, which professors are the ones that you can just show up and visit during their office hours and be like, Hey, I have this business and I have some questions about this or that. And some of the professors that are in our organization, they are scholars. And so what they've been doing is a lot of research, and they've been in academia for a very long time, and their focus really is on that kind of research stuff. It's not that they've ever run a business before, or that they have the practical coaching experience to show people. These are the kinds of things you could expect, um, from running a business, which is why we support organizations like 1 million Cups and the Boyd Innovation Center, where there are, those are more practitioner kind of buildings where those folks, when you go in there, those are people who are actively running businesses that can offer that advice back and forth. So that's always why we promote those places.
Keven Cohen (13:09):
How much does the school encourage internships amongst its students?
Kasie Whitener (13:14):
Oh, huge. Yeah. It's a big deal. But here's the thing. Internships have to be paid. And so a lot of times our small business owners, they, they just don't have the funds for that. They don't have the funds to pay a wage to an intern. And so then the question becomes, well, I, I need the help, but I, I don't have the ability to pay for that help. How can I make this a win-win for both of us? And that's where those class projects come in, which is like, well, all right. Talk to one of these professors. Like we have marketing professors, Keely Carter, who she does this with our marketing teams as well. And then we need those projects. We need companies to come forward and say, Hey, I'd be glad for you guys to work on this thing for me. Just keep in mind too, you're getting undergrads and while they're being directed and coached by their, their professor and they're doing it for a grade, it's still undergraduate level knowledge.
Keven Cohen (13:56):
Yeah. There's no level really experience.
Kasie Whitener (13:57):
Exactly.
Keven Cohen (13:58):
But you still have some of the brightest minds, uh, who have that spirit of entrepreneurialism.
Kasie Whitener (14:03):
And if it's in a space that you're not familiar with, like AI or social media or something like that, they can absolutely be a huge advantage.
Keven Cohen (14:10):
Exactly. Yeah. You know, and again, that's where you gotta tap in. This is not to sound stereotypical, but let's face it, I'm the guy now that's getting to the point where I gotta hand my son my phone and say, how do you do this? And how do you do that?
Kasie Whitener (14:19):
Right.
Keven Cohen (14:20):
And there's a lot of small business owners, if you look at, on a much bigger scale, how do I do this? How do I do this when it comes to marketing? How do I do this? How do I incorporate AI into this particular type of project, into this particular facet of my business? How do I make this run more efficiently by using, uh, the new software that's out there? I mean, there are things that the young people today, and again, not trying to sound stereotypical, but it's, it's a second language to them.
Kasie Whitener (14:46):
Right.
Keven Cohen (14:46):
Whereas to someone like us, it's Greek, uh, to them it's quite literally something that they've, they've never not experienced in their brief lifetimes.
Kasie Whitener (14:54):
Well, and that's another thing that was another mandate that Darla put out to us yesterday. She said, you know, there's a huge opportunity for folks. She said, folks my age, and you know, the cohort right behind me, so she's talking about boomers, gen X, right. Older millennials. She said, there's people in these age brackets that are still actively working in their professions or in their businesses, and they need to know how to do these things. And so she said, the PMBA program, which is the professional MBA, which is a Master's in Business administration, it's a one year program to get that MBA, it's done in the evenings and on weekends and that kind of thing. She said that PMBA program has got to be aimed at AI and AI schools and helping or AI tools and skills, and helping people to understand how they can use ai, not just in their business as their corporations are introducing AI. Um, you know, the, a lot of times those executives are not gonna get trained on it. Those, um, higher managers, the directors, they're not necessarily gonna be trained on it, but their direct reports are gonna be using it. And she said, this P--P-M-B-A program, or the continuing ed program that we have, which is also like a corporate education, those two programs together, she said, you guys have got to build some AI training programs to make that available for those directors and executives that are here in the area that need that knowledge because their people are gonna be using it and they won't know how it
Keven Cohen (16:13):
Works. Yeah. I'd be curious. We have people listening to the program right now. I know you don't usually open it up to phone calls, but if there is somebody who's got a small business right now, and you've had to make the change, or you're starting to make the change, or you're starting to accept what is now a reality, the genie's outta the bottle. AI, AI is not going away. Technology is changing rapidly. And I often use the old phrase, if you don't change your technology, you become Kmart.
Kasie Whitener (16:38):
Right.
Keven Cohen (16:39):
So, I'd be curious if there's somebody listening that wants to talk about it with us about what you've had to do or what you're having to do, or what you are are about to embark on that you might have to do, where it involves switching over from an old, I mean, I'll give you an example of, uh, something that's been in the news a lot in the last six months. You think about what's been going on with the airport up in Newark.
Kasie Whitener (16:59):
Yep.
Keven Cohen (17:00):
New Jersey. And they were using a, a computer program from the seventies, okay. And obviously that's not the safest way for air traffic control to be able to be using today's planes.
Kasie Whitener (17:11):
Right.
Keven Cohen (17:12):
And so, one of the big things that the transportation secretary and the, the Trump administration is doing, saying, we have got to bring all of our airports up to speed by changing out the technology, not necessarily with AI, but just something comparable to what's going on. Well, again, I think that applies to a business. If you're sitting there, no offense to our old debit and, and, and, and I'm on the debit side of this, or I'm on the, the, the, the, uh, what whatever side . Uh, of the ledger, and you're still using a paper ledger, no offense, that's great, but that's not how you're, you're being the most efficient. And, and that's not letting the software and the technology work for you.
Kasie Whitener (17:53):
And if you don't go in search of that solution, then they will come for you. And what ends up happening in that case is these very aggressive sales reps get in front of you and they talk to you about all the things that their software can do. And, you know, you need software. You just haven't had time to look into software solutions. And here's one sitting right in front of you, and why wouldn't you just go with this one? And sometimes you end up overpaying for a solution that does more than you need it to do. You don't necessarily get the support that you're looking for from it. So this person sold you something in good faith. They thought this is a great product, but you didn't necessarily, you didn't on your side do the due diligence to look at competitors or do any kind of, you know, research. And sometimes you just didn't have time for it. You're so busy working in your business that, that when the software solution comes forward, they go, Hey, here, this is wonderful. Try this. And you go, okay, you know what? Fine, I know I need to upgrade. I'll just go with you. You don't want that person making your business decision for you.
Keven Cohen (18:44):
No.
Kasie Whitener (18:45):
You wanna be the one that's chosen the software that you're gonna be using to do your point of sale stuff, to do your customer relationship management stuff, to do your workforce management stuff, to do your payroll. You wanna be the one that chose the software that's going to be running your business. You don't want the sales reps coming in and pushing it on you. And so it's a really good idea to start to spend a little bit of time going, where do I need better systems and how can I find the right system for me? And who knows what those right systems are and how can I get good advice and, and good guidance on this?
Keven Cohen (19:14):
And the thing that's scary is sometimes you don't know where to start. So all you do is you Google something. Right. And that's not necessarily the fastest way that's gonna,
Kasie Whitener (19:23):
I will say, if you're gonna Google something, if you end up with cnet CNET, you're probably gonna get a better recommendation than any other website.
Keven Cohen (19:30):
Well they do a great job because it's not, uh, it's, it's not sponsored.
Kasie Whitener (19:33):
Exactly. It's a vendor agnostic.
Keven Cohen (19:35):
Right. Right, right, right. Uh, but the thing I'm trying to point out though, is if you go, and this just, just a simple tip. If you Google something, make sure you understand that the reason why the first three or four that are listed there doesn't necessarily mean that the first three or four are the best.
Kasie Whitener (19:48):
They're ads. Yeah.
Keven Cohen (19:48):
Yeah. A lot of 'em say sponsored, or a lot of 'em are just because they have the best, what's called search engine optimization.
Kasie Whitener (19:54):
Right.
Keven Cohen (19:54):
And they're able to get themselves listed first. Uh, sometimes it's through their own dollars that they're willing to spend with Google, but sometimes it's just because they've got the right people who are helping to build their website and putting the right keywords.
Kasie Whitener (20:06):
Right.
Keven Cohen (20:06):
And all that stuff. So again, I'm not trying to give a lesson in search engine optimization, but just be aware of that. 'cause it's actually something that, that if you don't know anything about it and your website is something you want more people to be able to find on Google and on online, then you need to learn a little about the
Kasie Whitener (20:21):
And look, I know, I know a great SEO person for you. I promise you we have in town, we have somebody that, uh, that that's what she does, is she optimizes small businesses websites for them. So if you're looking for somebody who can do that, by all means, send me a message. I'll be glad to recommend her to you. Right. But all that to say, like, when you're making choices about your business, you want those business, those choices to be yours, and you want them to have in mind, this is the long term health of my business. And so waiting for somebody to recommend something to you or somebody to come and push a solution on you is not the most proactive way to protect your business from making some of those business mistakes. And so I think that that's one of the kinds of projects that our students could do for you. They could spend time looking at, here's the systems you're currently using to do these tasks. Here's the ones that we recommend because they're industry standard, or because they're gonna be better in your price range, or something to that effect. So that's the kind of project that you could bring to our students, and they could help you with that. Yeah.
Keven Cohen (21:13):
Fair enough.
Kasie Whitener (21:14):
Let's run to break on the other side. We're gonna, um, get back into the Darla Moore conversation that we had yesterday at the University of South Carolina. Uh, Darla Moore came to visit. It was amazing. Um, so I wanna unpack some of her comments and, uh, thanks Kev for sitting in on Moore impact. We'll be right back.
Kasie Whitener (21:40):
Welcome back to Moore Impact, Kasie Whitener here, your host, sitting in, uh, today to talk a little bit about Darla Moore's visit to the Moore School yesterday, uh, which was September 15th. She came and spent some time with the faculty and staff and gave us her insights and her ideas about how things are going in academia in higher ed, uh, but also in the greater business world, and sort of the things that she expects out of her school, because of course, we are the number one, we're the only business school in America that's named after a woman, which is amazing. Um, but then on top of that, she is our benefactor. And of course, her name is on the school. So she has a lot invested in whether or not we're doing what she thinks to be, are the right things to move, uh, in, into the next era, um, that we're going into. She talked a lot about the, she called that there's, there were three things she said that, uh, that academia was suffering from. One was reputation issues, one was relevance issues, and one was financial issues. And when she talked about the reputation issues, she was really actually talking about, um, some of these more elite universities that are getting kind of slapped down, um, in a bunch of different ways. We think about like Harvard and Cornell and those, not Cornell, but, um, Columbia and those kinds of schools. And so she was saying that we actually can benefit from that because a lot of people who maybe had their sight set on those schools are now gonna start looking to a state institution like ours, and to the Darla Moore School, a business as a competitor in that realm and, and would prefer to come to Carolina. And so she said we could actually benefit from that.
Kasie Whitener (23:02):
But the other two, the relevance issue and the financial issue, she said, those are things we need to address. The financial issue being that our current financial model is unsustainable. We are just bloated. We're spending too much money in the wrong places. And she said, we really need to get a, a handle on our budget and, and pull those costs back. And then the other was the relevance issue, which is, are you teaching the things that these people actually need to know when they go out into the world? And, um, one of our professors, uh, uh, in marketing, she's the, um, the chair of the marketing department, Dr. Keeley Carter. She said to Darla, Hey, I'm a Darla Moore School grad, and now here I am teaching here because I so appreciate everything I learned at the Darla Moore School and the way it set me up for my business career. And then once I finished my PhD, I decided to come back and give back to the school. She said, and Darla said, I want these students to feel like you feel that they feel that grateful to the experience they had here, that they want to come back and serve in that way. And so, uh, so it was just a, a great conversation to be thinking about what's the, the overall legacy and, and what are these folks gonna feel like when they walk out the door?
Keven Cohen (24:01):
It's pretty interesting when you look at it from the standpoint of her impact. I wonder when she walks through the school, is it like a pied piper effect? I mean, do people just want to be like, following her? Do I mean, she's she's 71 years old.
Kasie Whitener (24:17):
Yeah.
Keven Cohen (24:18):
And she's incredibly insightful. She's still so hands on.
Kasie Whitener (24:21):
Right.
Keven Cohen (24:21):
And, and I, I would think that that's fascinating because here's somebody that, as you mentioned, uh, her commitment to the school, her expectations of the school, it's almost like when she comes through, I'm gonna give you the state of the state for, for the Darla Moore School and tell you what I think is going on, uh, from the outside in. And I want you to tell me what's going on from the inside out.
Kasie Whitener (24:41):
Right. And we're not the only school she's funded. In fact, one of the students that asked the question in the student session was that she had given quite a bit philanthropy, uh, toward a bunch of different efforts in South Carolina, but she tended to come back to education. She tended to give over and over again to education. Clemson, of course, has been a benefit, uh, Florence Darlington Tech, these other kinds of places that are near to Lake City and that sort of thing. But Francis Marion, and, uh, and so the student asked her, you know, how, why do you keep coming back to education as your preferred philanthropy? And she said, it's everything. Education is everything at every level. Said, we Carolina have to do a better job with the K through 12, and that her investments in education are about investing in the future. And she said, without educated individuals, we will not survive. Right. Like, we've got to have individuals, citizens that are an educated citizenry. So I thought that was amazing. She, uh, very much a committed philanthropist as far as education is concerned.
Keven Cohen (25:35):
Yeah, I mean, clearly she follows up on what she's, she's promoting and what she's investing in. Uh, and there's nothing better than to invest in young people. And, and let's face it. I mean, that's, that's a tremendous form of being philanthropic, is if you're giving back so that the next generation or several generations beyond are able to have opportunities that maybe previous generations didn't have.
Kasie Whitener (25:57):
Well, it's definitely, I think there's the legacy factor to it, but I think, uh, you're right to say that her intention is to invest. It's not philanthropy for just giving wealth the way it's philanthropy for the sake of an investment. Right. She's a shrewd business person that sees that those investments are gonna pay off long term. Uh, specifically in South Carolina, one of the things that she mentioned, and we kind of touched on it just a little bit in the first half hour, but was the AI piece and how she felt like that we needed to equip our students not only with their knowledge and the discipline. So they need to know their discipline. They need to know accounting practices. They need to know marketing standards. They need to know finance. Right? Like, those things are still true. They still do need to know how those things operate, because then when the AI comes in and starts doing its work, you have to be able to check the AI and make sure it's doing the right work. Right? And if you don't know those principles, then you won't be able to be a good steward of those AI mach, you know, the machinery that's gonna come in and, and do that. And then she said, the other thing was that as AI might be replacing specific jobs and specific tasks, the task for us becomes being able to manage that AI and use it in the right way. And so that's a skillset that she feels like every class across the entire business school needs to be incorporating AI and teaching our young people how to engage with it. And she specifically mentioned prompts and questions. How do we prompt the AI to do the right thing? How do we ask it the right questions to get the information that we need from it? And she said, if you're not, if you're not every day helping these young people learn how to ask good questions, you're not preparing them for the future, because that's what they're gonna have to be able to do. That's
Keven Cohen (27:37):
A deep dive into the AI from the standpoint of, okay, we know it's here, but how do we make it most effective?
Kasie Whitener (27:43):
Right. And how, what do we have to be able to do, for it to be effective, which I thought was amazing. And I think, so, and this kind of goes to like, we have this challenge right now in our, at our discipline of, there's a lot of sort of consumption culture because young people get fed a lot of content, right? And so they just sort of consume, consume, consume, and they're not necessarily engaging in a way that they are either producing or that they're requiring more of the content producers. And like, what I mean by that is you can just sit and watch videos and just mindlessly be scrolling and not feel affected by it or engage with it at all. Right? And so in our, how do you, how are you not the same thing when you're standing up in front of the room giving a lecture, you're just more content, right? Like, you're just more things that they're basically tuned into and tuned out of, you know, in and out. How do you then get them engaged and ask them to ask the right questions and get them to really start thinking about and working through the stuff that you're presenting to them? That's a big challenge for us. And that goes back to Darla Moore's point about relevance. How is the school relevant? How is the experience of traditional education relevant? How is this classroom model that you have relevant to what they need to be doing when they leave here? And then really thinking about how you, how we can change and update our methodology to be more relevant to these kids.
Keven Cohen (29:01):
Take it a step further, when you think about relevance and the importance of, of being staying relevant. This might sound maybe a little melodramatic, but I, I, I think that you can even apply it if you look at the beginning of a semester, school started, what? Beginning of September. End of August, right?
Kasie Whitener (29:18):
A month ago. Yeah.
Keven Cohen (29:19):
Okay. If you look at that, let's just say the end of August, by the time you get to the end of the semester, something you taught at the beginning of the semester could have changed just because of technology.
Kasie Whitener (29:30):
Yeah.
Keven Cohen (29:31):
I mean, it's like the old car. As soon as you buy a car and drive it off the lot and it loses a certain amount of its value, the moment you drive it off the lot.
Kasie Whitener (29:38):
Yeah.
Keven Cohen (29:39):
I want to kind of use that as an, as a metaphor or analogy. As soon as you teach something in August, you gotta make sure that when you're done in November, that's still relevant.
Kasie Whitener (29:48):
Yeah.
Keven Cohen (29:48):
Because with AI, it, it quite seriously could change over the course of four months.
Kasie Whitener (29:54):
I think that's where academia has kind of collapsed on the idea we're teaching principles, like we're teaching these long standard principles that have always been true, right? These principles have always been true. This is the way the generally accepted accounting practices or gap practices have always worked. Right. And I think that that's kind of the challenge is like, is that true on the other side of AI? Like, are these principles that you're teaching these students, are they still true once AI gets in and starts making this, you know, changing the way the work is done? And so part of the, the, in a, in a bachelor degree, in an undergraduate degree, a four year program like we have at Carolina, the reason we talk about learning how to think and being critical thinkers and being able to analyze what they're seeing and really trying to encourage them to, um, take in multiple resources and then make kind of new knowledge out of those multiple resources. The reason we focus on all of that sort of nebulous thinking stuff is because we know that if we just teach them skills, here's how to use an Excel spreadsheet, here's how to use a PowerPoint slide deck. You know, here's how to run a data set analysis. Right? Right. Sure. Like those skills are gonna change Sure. Or they're gonna be taken over by ai. Right? Absolutely. So what we, they need to be able to do instead is recognize when AI screws up. Like, how do I know that what AI gave me is wrong? Well, I kind of know enough about this to know that what they said was not the right thing.
Keven Cohen (31:18):
Sure.
Kasie Whitener (31:19):
Right. And how can I.
Keven Cohen (31:20):
And it does happen.
Kasie Whitener (31:20):
Exactly.
Keven Cohen (31:21):
Oh, yeah.
Kasie Whitener (31:21):
Exactly.
Keven Cohen (31:22):
Don't be fooled. I mean, don't think that if that it's gospel just because it comes off of AI or it becomes off the internet.
Kasie Whitener (31:28):
But how will they know the difference if they're not being taught, the ability to look at multiple sources and then try to reason their way through? Does this seem like a logical thing, or am I being had. You know, so I think that's a critical piece and that the skills and the other part of it. 'cause everybody kept asking her, what's the advice you would give to students? What's the advice you would give to students? And the two things that she said, uh, that I thought really landed the first was don't be a generalist. Specialize. She said, know something that other people don't know. Do something other people are not willing to do. And that will differentiate yourself and that will make you special. But it's gotta be something that people need. Right? Like, not in any way to throw our crochet people under the bus, but being able to crochet a particular kind of knot is probably not the marketable skill you're looking for here. But if you have the ability to create, uh, complex analysis models, or you have the, there are some of these kinds of things that you can do, that you can learn how to do in college, that will then create for you a specialization that maybe doesn't exist yet.
Keven Cohen (32:28):
Well, what you and I are doing right now is a specialization.
Kasie Whitener (32:30):
Yeah.
Keven Cohen (32:31):
You know, if you're gonna go into a radio, for example, anybody now can use AI to be a DJ and spin records and, and music. But you gotta have that special specialization, that niche, that talent to be able to do talk radio.
Kasie Whitener (32:44):
Sure.
Keven Cohen (32:44):
Especially local talk radio. And in this case, even more specialized, what we're talking about with Moore Impact. Uh, you've gotta have the ability to take what you've got over the more business school, translate it to the radio and bring it to the listeners here at the point. So that's just, I'm just trying to give, uh, examples of what you're talking about. Sure. That she was talking about that our listeners here can understand what you mean by specialization.
Kasie Whitener (33:05):
Well, and every Joe on the street can start a podcast. Right?
Keven Cohen (33:08):
Right.
Kasie Whitener (33:08):
So what does that look like? How do you actually do it? What does the distribution of that podcast look like? How do you produce a quality audio product? Like these kinds of, those are the sorts of things I think that, you know, everybody's out there doing it, but they're not all doing it. Well,
Keven Cohen (33:46):
You're not a very good influencer if you're not influencing.
Kasie Whitener (33:49):
Right. Exactly, exactly.
Keven Cohen (33:51):
To put it as bluntly as to use the term that people understand with influencer.
Kasie Whitener (33:55):
Right.
Keven Cohen (33:56):
If you're not getting butts in the seats, then you're obviously not doing your job.
Kasie Whitener (33:59):
Well, that goes back to the Lexington story we heard earlier this morning.
Keven Cohen (34:02):
Right.
Kasie Whitener (34:02):
Which is the gal, the influencer who went and had a two foot pizza at a pizzeria in Lexington,
Keven Cohen (34:07):
2 million clicks
Kasie Whitener (34:08):
And those people half a million. Yeah. And then those people sold out a pizza. Right.
Keven Cohen (34:15):
So there you go.
Kasie Whitener (34:15):
Yeah. It's pretty amazing. All right. We've got one segment to go. Kevin and I are breaking down what Darla Moore had to say at the Moore School of Business yesterday. It's Moore Impact. Don't go away.
Kasie Whitener (34:40):
Welcome back into Moore Impact. Kasie Whitener, your host here. And it's kind of a little bit of an unusual episode today, because with me in the studio is Kevin Cohen, who of course is my morning show co-host on, um, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. Uh, but is also the owner here of 100.7, the Point as a local business owner and somebody who has benefited. I think maybe from just being in an entrepreneurial rich environment where you've got a lot of your, uh, your point partners and your advertisers are local businesses, individuals who have decided to go into that entrepreneurial path. And so I think you've done a great job of building a point family that is supportive of entrepreneurship and individual business ownership, which I just think is awesome.
Keven Cohen (35:21):
Well, thank you for that. I appreciate you being part of that family. And, and I have learned from you and asked you, uh, a number of times for, for how would you do this and how would you do that? Same thing with some of our other folks around. One of the things that when I go and I speak to, to classes or I, I speak to anybody, even if it's just another small business owner who says, how do you do this? How do you do that? I have like two or three core pieces of advice. They sound very generalized, but I think they're good. And one of 'em, Kasie, you and I have talked about this many times, stay in your lane. Yeah. I'm not qualified to do some of the things that what you're turning out at the, the Darla Moore School with some of your students are capable of doing. So I'm gonna tap their knowledge. I'm gonna tap into somebody else. I stay in my lane. You don't, you don't call a plumber to do brain surgery. Right. You know, I mean, I, I I know that's, again, almost making a comedic line, but it's true. You don't go, if you stay in your lane and you do something really, really well, kinda look what Darla was saying about specialize. In what you know, then there's people who can specialize in what they know and when you need their services, pay 'em.
Kasie Whitener (36:25):
Yeah.
Keven Cohen (36:25):
But because you're gonna save yourself money as a business owner by paying someone who's really good at it, then by trying to do something and, and flubbing it yourself. Or paying the wrong person to cut corners and then having to do it again six months later.
Kasie Whitener (36:39):
Right. A hundred percent. Or, or feeling like, well, I can't really afford to, uh, to do that right now. So either I won't do it and it'll just get progressively worse. Or I will, you know, try to do it myself, or I'll find some kind of cheap solution to it. And then again, it'll just get worse. Sometimes it's about investing in the business and, and taking, taking it seriously that this is a thing I'm gonna have to invest in. I'm gonna have to put money into this. I'm going to have to kind of suck it up and spend money on this thing that even though I didn't want to in the long run, the return on that investment is going to pay off.
Keven Cohen (37:11):
I'll bring you a radio example. Just 'cause I think people that are listening, whether it's to the program now live or even on a podcast, can still understand this, when we've had economic downturns, I'll just take COVID as an example. A lot of businesses and, and COVID iss a a an extreme example. 'cause it was a once in a, hopefully once in a lifetime.
Kasie Whitener (37:28):
Right.
Keven Cohen (37:28):
Pandemic for us. But, but it was a pretty extreme example. Well, a lot of businesses were going through unforeseen and unexpected this and unexpected that.
Kasie Whitener (37:36):
Right.
Keven Cohen (37:36):
And as a result, they had no idea what tomorrow was gonna bring. Right. Well, in any economic downturn, one of the first things a lot of small business owners do is they stop their advertising.
Kasie Whitener (37:45):
Advertising. Yeah.
Keven Cohen (37:46):
And I'm like, if you're already hurting getting people in the door, the last thing you wanna do is stop telling people about yourself.
Kasie Whitener (37:51):
Right. Right.
Keven Cohen (37:52):
And they think that's an expense they can cut and, and it's still gonna work. But that's just, that's a, it's, it's a fallacy.
Kasie Whitener (37:59):
It's tough. Yeah.
Keven Cohen (37:59):
It's a very difficult thing. Of course, don't get me wrong, I realize the first bill you pay is to be, to keep the lights on.
Kasie Whitener (38:04):
Right.
Keven Cohen (38:05):
And feed your family. But if no one knows about you anymore, it's not gonna generate enough business to keep your lights on. Right. It's, or feed your family.
Kasie Whitener (38:12):
It's just gonna result in, in, from a long-term perspective. Right. You're gonna have fewer customers that come in the door. You sell fewer products. Right. You'll make less revenue. And so even if it feels like an expense, it is a revenue generating expense as opposed to some other expenses which may not in fact be revenue generating expenses.
Keven Cohen (38:28):
Right.
Kasie Whitener (38:29):
And we're thinking about judgment here. And I think that's to kind of go back to our Darla Moore conversation yesterday, Darla Moore visited the university. She sat with professors, uh, in one session, kind of a closed session. And she, we, she was kind of laughing toward the end because some of our student ambassadors were there, and they were there to lead her into the next session. But when they walked in the door, she goes, uh, uh, you're not supposed to be here. You guys are, this was off limits. This was just supposed to be the professors that were gonna be in the room.
Keven Cohen (38:53):
Right, right.
Kasie Whitener (38:53):
But anyway, um, so she was talking about the three really fundamental pieces of your life. The first is curiosity, the second is trust, and the third is judgment. And she talked about it kind of as a trifecta, the foundation of a successful life. And that what you and I are talking about in terms of making those business decisions, that's about judgment. And what kind of judgment do you have? Are you weighing the pros and cons? Are you deciding on long-term investments versus short-term gain? Are you, um, responding emotionally to something, or are you responding in a way that's going to improve the experience that you and your customers are having? That's, those are, that's judgment. Right. And so she talked about how judgment, bad judgment, will kill your career faster than anything else, just having bad judgment. And I think we've seen a little bit of that in the news lately. Then the second piece of it was curiosity. And she said, wanting to learn, always wanting to know what's next. Always wanting to have a handle on what is your industry like, what are the new things that are coming into my industry? How is my industry being impacted by other industries? Just being curious. And then the third one, as I said, was trust. And she said, you build trust by building competence. If you are competent, if you are doing the work, then people will trust you to do the work. But if you are shirking your responsibilities, if you're not showing up, if you're making excuses, people aren't gonna trust you. And if they don't trust you, then your, your life is not going to be what you want it to be. Um, so I thought that was really interesting. She kind of gave that like life coachy advice, curiosity, judgment, and trust.
Keven Cohen (40:21):
Let me go to the life coaching aspect from Darla Moore, because you've had a unique opportunity to be around her in this capacity. And also at the art festival or whatever in Lake City.
Kasie Whitener (40:29):
Art fields. Yeah.
Keven Cohen (40:30):
Yeah. She is so, so much involved with Lake City. And, and you've talked about that event that is just highlights artists of all kinds.
Kasie Whitener (40:39):
Sure.
Keven Cohen (40:39):
In Lake City. So you've been around her enough to see her in, in a few different capacities. And I know you're, uh, you're, you're a big admirer of hers.
Kasie Whitener (40:47):
I am. I'm a big fan.
Keven Cohen (40:48):
Yeah.
Kasie Whitener (40:48):
I'm A big fan.
Keven Cohen (40:49):
So when you see someone, you, yourself being an entrepreneur, you yourself being someone who is politically motivated. You, somebody who, who keeps on top of the news, somebody that is, is, uh, turning out the next generation of, of entrepreneur entrepreneurs yourself. When you see there, there's not as many, maybe because they haven't achieved or been given opportunity. But when you see a woman who has achieved the level of success and maintained it and grown it the way she has done. So, what's your takeaway from someone like, like Darla Moore?
Kasie Whitener (41:19):
I mean of course, I want to hear and absorb everything she has to say. I wanna recognize the wisdom that she's earned over her years in business and in philanthropy, and the way that she's been engaged with the citizens here in South Carolina, specifically in Lake City, and what she built with art fields. I just wanna learn from all of that. And then I also, I feel this sense of wanting to make her proud. Like when we, when her name is on our school, and we represent her when we represent our school, I wanna make her proud. I want the work that I do with Moore Impact to make her proud. I want the work that I do with the Faber Entrepreneurship Center to make her proud. I want her to feel like that what Kasie Whitener has been contributing is something she can be proud of. And I think everybody in the room felt that way. I mean, all of our, all my colleagues who were there listening to her talk yesterday, she is an inspiring person. And one of the things that she said, uh, to us, it was kind of funny 'cause we, the, the question of trust came up and we kind of laughed about it because actually Audrey Korsgaard, who's our, um, associate dean for academics, she was interviewing Darla in this like, sort of fireside chat model.
Keven Cohen (42:20):
Sure.
Kasie Whitener (42:21):
And Audrey teaches trust, like that she teaches in the human resources, uh, specialty. And she teaches on trust. Like that's a specific topic for her. So we were all kind of like feeling this kind of sense of, um, community around, okay, we kind of know what we do, and we know we're pretty good at it. And she said, you've got to be more than just a professor in the room. You've gotta coach these young people because they need that. They need mentors, they need coaches, they need people to help them get through these difficult stages. And as things are changing. And Audrey said, yeah. You know, you just come in, you deliver your lecture, you walk back out. It's not that way anymore. Now, as professors, we engage fully with our students, and we have more of a holistic approach. How can I help you see all the opportunities that are available to you? And I told you a couple weeks ago, the very first week in my classes, I'm always teaching goal setting.
Keven Cohen (43:06):
Sure.
Kasie Whitener (43:07):
And I do a, I mean, I, and I'll say to them, I'll be like, all right, that concludes the life coaching session for today. But my students who've been in my classes multiple times, they love that session to get a sense, to really think about, Hey, Dr. Whitener really wants us to be successful. She really cares about the, you know, the choices that we're making and the judgment that we're showing. And all of that is a hundred percent true.
Keven Cohen (43:26):
Uh, I just, I think about someone like that. And from the outside in now, I've never met Darla Moore, never been in the same room with Darla Moore. So I look at it from the outside in, and I'm thinking to myself, here's a 71-year-old woman who couldn't spend it if she tried. Uh, she has so much money. Okay, great. So the question I would ask is, is this woman, uh, someone that, that is doing what she is doing? Or is this woman someone that is living off the fruit of the land, not to be mean to anyone? I'm thinking about like, is she, is she a country, uh, Darla Moore, or is she a country Paula Dean? You know what I mean?
Kasie Whitener (43:59):
Right.
Keven Cohen (43:59):
And, and I, I am fascinated by the fact that she appears to not allow complacency into her own life.
Kasie Whitener (44:06):
Right.
Keven Cohen (44:07):
And I love that about her because she's 71. She's loaded.
Kasie Whitener (44:10):
Yeah.
Keven Cohen (44:10):
She doesn't have any need in the world to worry about anything, but she is legacy concerned, and she is investing, as you talked about in young people. And I love that about her because to me that that's, I wish I were in a more philanthropic position, but one day, if I'm able, that's what I wanna do, is I wanna invest in young people. And I don't, it's not so much a legacy thing, but I do wanna make sure that my family, if I, when I go, they can be proud of me.
Kasie Whitener (44:37):
Yeah. Yeah. I mean a hundred percent. And I think I'll leave you with like kind of the last thing that she said, which I thought was really impactful, she said that wealth, 'cause of course she's like, I mean, I'm rich. You guys know that. Everybody knows I have this wealth. But she said, wealth is when your passive income is greater than your expenses. Right? And so when your passive income outpaces your run rate, so, and the passive income is not the stuff you're working for. It's not your paycheck, right? It's the investments that you have. It's the, the, the money that's coming in that you're not having to work for. She said, when that outpaces your expenses, then you have freedom. You have autonomy. You can choose how to spend your time. You can choose what work you're actually going to do. She said, when you get to that place, you don't need a billion dollars to be wealthy. You just need to have passive income that outpaces your run rate. And she said, if you're doing that, you've got plenty of freedom. You've got plenty of autonomy and you're the richest person in America.
Keven Cohen (45:27):
That's awesome. Yeah. That's a great way to, to tag it and a great way to end it. Uh, I appreciate it. Thanks for letting me hang out with you,
Kasie Whitener (45:33):
Man. I thought she was amazing yesterday and I'm so grateful that I got a chance to share all of that wisdom. 'cause I know I did it with the top five this morning. But like, there's just so much more to talk about and so much more to unpack. Well, and obviously we've just kind of done that. I, she's a fascinating lady. She really is. I'm glad you have had multiple opportunities to be around her and, and kind of be a sponge. Soak up a little bit about what she brings because you can apply it to so many lessons in life. And I don't just mean as a, a teacher at USC.
Kasie Whitener (45:57):
Sure. A hundred percent. Thanks for sitting out with me, Kev. I appreciate it. This has been Moore Impact when you learn more, you know more, when you know more, you do more. Thanks for listening.