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Mike Beckman, MBA2, shot this breathtaking photo
of Pete Mavoides, MBA1, reading
The MSJ over Winter Break on a ski lift in Vail, Colo. Please continue to place your entries for the "MSJ In Wacky Places" photo contest in the "submissions" box outside the MSJ office. You could be the next $25 winner! |
by Andrew Frumovitz, MBA1
I'm generally on the West Coast during New Year's. Lately I haven't been able to stay awake until the ball drops in New York.
Fourth of July. When I was 12 years old, I lit off a dyslexic bottle rocket. It exploded first, though I presume it had intentions of blasting off later. I stood a foot away when it went bang in the night. I've learned a thing or two from Pavlov's dog. I don't do bottle rockets anymore. But I do heel.
For me, the Fourth of July is now only notable for its historical coincidence. Both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, our country's second and third Presidents, respectively, died on July 4, 1826. Neat, huh?
I haven't seen one woman go into labor on Labor Day. Granted, I've never been in a maternity ward on Labor Day. But the Devil's in the details.
I've only begun noticing Arbor Day since living in Ann Arbor. President's Day has only a select 41 men who can truly say they know what it's like to be President. And for the 36 dead Presidents, if they were alive on President's Day, I doubt they'd be reminiscing about their days in office. More likely they'd be saying: "Hey, somebody get me out of this box."
Not to be disrespectful to the dead, which is exactly what Halloween is. Little kids walking around dressed like skeletons. I don't need to be reminded where I'm going to end up. Talk about morbid. Might as well have a holiday celebrating dust.
Thanksgiving. I don't eat turkey or yams or sweet potatoes or cranberries on the 364 other days of the year. What makes anybody think I want them on Thanksgiving Day? I can't embrace that holiday until its menu is upgraded.
Sweetheart's Day is just a commercialization of Valentine's Day, which is itself a commercialization of Sweetheart's Day. It's a vicious cycle, as bad as the directions on a shampoo bottle.
I've made a habit of skipping any Leap Year. Never putting on gloves for Boxing Day. I can't spell Hanukah [sic].
Which leaves me with my favorite holiday. The little-talked-about, never-remembered Ides of March. Now that's a holiday you can really seek your teeth into.
It has everything. Politics. Intrigue. Friendship. Betrayal. Murder. Togas.
The death of Caesar. The only emperor to have a salad named after him. The only person, really, to receive such an honor, excepting erstwhile actor Randall "Tex" Cobb.
The beauty of my holiday is that it doesn't come with any preordained rite of celebration. No bright lights. No loud noises. No obligatory Christmas tree. No fireworks. No party horns. No sparklers. The Ides is wide open. It's B.Y.O.R.--Bring Your Own Ritual.
So it is now that I share my Ides of March ritual with you. In so doing, I don't intend to don a pedantic cap. It's just my ritual--nothing more--so take it for what it's worth: a repository of self-reflection, maybe, or perhaps a colossal signal of nothing altogether and at once.
Come March 15 each year, I walk to the closest package store and purchase a 40-ounce bottle of St. Ides malted beverage. Then, I sit myself down--in a park, on my couch, in the library; anywhere of comfort--drink in hand, and I endeavor to read the collected works of Shakespeare. Because I don't remember much of my 7th-grade Latin (excepting semper ubi, sub ubi), and being that Bill was quite prolific over there in Stratford upon Avon, a hop, skip, and a few more hops from the river Thames, I rarely finish but half of his works.
But there is something in the effort that centers me. Places me spatially in my moment of time.
Last year, my first in law school, I considered Hamlet inspecting a human skull:
There's another: why may not that be the skull of alawyer?/ Where be his quiddities now, his quillets,/ his cases, his tenures, and his tricks? why does he/ suffer this rude knave now to knock him about the/ sconce with a dirty shovel, and will not tell him of/ his action of battery? Hum!
And I remember reading "Timons of Athens" and taking heed of the Fool when he said:
A fool in good clothes, and something like thee./ 'Tis a spirit: sometime't appears like a lord; sometime like a lawyer.
This year, I will read with the jaundiced eye of an MBA1 during first-year recruiting. I've had my spat of interviews. I've sat across from recruiters, wishing they were Theseus in "A Midsmummer Night's Dream," when he said:
I must employ you in some business.
Or Prospero from "The Tempest":
Come forth, I say! There's other business for thee.
O, to be Bassiano, from "The Merchant of Venice," when he said, quite simply:
I have some business.
Five days from now, when I turn to "Hamlet," I expect to read:
To be employed, or not employed, That is the question.
Or for Mark Anthony to say in "Julius Caesar":
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;/ I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him./ The money that people make lives after them;/ The good is oft interred with their bones.
Or the Emperor himself:
Et tu, MBA? Then fall Caesar!
Beware the Ides, I tell you. Beware the Ides of March.
by MBA2 MAP Team 14.05
Last year, as a team we wrote a weekly article entitled "Real MAP" based on the MTVs "Real World" model. We thought that it would be a unique opportunity to share our MAP experience with other MAP teams, the MBA2s and BBAs, and the faculty and administration. Also we provided copies of our article to our MAP company sponsors. As the first years head out into the dark unknown of MAP, we thought that we would provide a little insight from our experience, but first a refresher on the Former MAP Team 14.05's project and who we are.
Our project was to design an Internet marketing strategy for Citibank Credit Cards Web site targeted at the college segment. This was not your typical process improvement MAP experience. In fact, there was a significant amount of debate between us, our faculty team, and the MAP host company team what our project should be. In the end, we put together a compromise addressing Citibank's requirements for a marketing strategy and the MAP faculty's need for process improvement. We were probably the first marketing strategy to address time, cost, and quality, but it worked.
Our team was made up of five very unique individuals: Mike Aleles from San Diego, Claudia Frankel from Brazil, Teresa Head and Chuck Hornbrook from DC, and Alain Olivier from NYC. We all had different talents and abilities that we brought to the MAP experience. Some of us had information technology backgrounds, others were concentrating in marketing, and others were hard core finance. What we all had in common was a lack in any background in credit cards and none of us had concentrated on Internet marketing. In fact only a few of us had Citibank Credit Cards.
After the course of seven weeks we put together a presentation and paper that was fairly well received by the faculty and our sponsors. In fact, Citibank used many of our recommendations for the Web site. Now whether they already had a specific Web site in mind and we confirmed their thoughts or we brought in a new way of thinking is unknown. However, when a recruiters inquires if our MAP recommendations were implemented we can in good faith say, "YES they were!"
After spending some time away from MAP, there are a few insights that we thought that we would share with the MBA1s that are entering the MAP phase of their education. MAP represents a unique partnering opportunity with companies and their personnel at very high levels. You should relish the access and exposure you will have to top management. We worked with top level VPs at Citibank and we spent two hours talking with Roberta Areana, the head of Citibank Credit Cards, the most profitable arm of Citicorp. How often does that occur during you summer internship or even in your last place of employment? The level of commitment demonstrated by Citibank very much surprised us. We do not believe that as a team we fully appreciated this commitment until we were done with the project.
Also, if your experience is anything similar to ours, over the course of the next seven weeks you will be learning more about yourselves, how you interact in groups, and your problem solving abilities then you will operations management, statistics or cost accounting. We can understand why some of the faculty members who teach the seven week core courses would like more weeks of teaching time. MAP definitely is not a replacement for classroom teaching of the core classes. But MAP is the best opportunity you will have to learn and apply leadership skills that cannot be taught in the classroom.
However, just because one component of the MAP is not related to the faculty, does not mean that the academic component of MAP is not critical. An important lesson that we did not learn early on was integrating the faculty into our project from the beginning. The faculty are great resources and you should take advantage of their knowledge and insights. Have a faculty representative come out to your site, have them visit with your company sponsors. Do not let the grading and the "us vs. them" mentality get in your way of providing an excellent learning and value added opportunity for your team members and the sponsoring company.
One complaint about MAP from some of our team members was that it did not prepare you well for internships in finance or marketing. One of our team members remarked "MBAs from other schools just seemed to have more technical skills." Another mentioned that for the first two weeks of his job we was trying to remember what he had learned in cost accounting. "Sure I could draw a processes flow diagram, but I couldn't remember how to allocate costs...it had been too long." While these are true, it is up to you to stay familiar with the concepts that you might be using on the job this summer.
One final piece of advice with MAP is to (1) remember your roles and (2) keep track of who your other MAP teammates are interviewing with for full-time positions in the fall. According to one of our teammates, it is a big joke when recruiters hear from every team member that they were the "unofficial team leader" of their respective MAP teams. What some recruiters do is try to figure out if they have people on the same MAP team interviewing for the same job to compare notes on their MAP stories. While no one on our MAP team interviewed with the same company, we are sure that our stories and roles have varied. However, we all agree that it was a unique experience that has left an impression on us all.
by James B. Steele, MBA1
I feel like an astronaut preparing for a space walk as I pull on my mittens and adjust the hood on my parka. It's not quite zero degrees outside. A February day so cold that it hurts to smile. The first thing that crosses my mind as Chopo and I tramp across East University on our way to lunch is how he's dealing with the change in weather from his native Mexico City. "It's not so bad, you know," he says smiling ear to ear, "I enjoy the variety."
As an entrepreneur in Mexico's roller-coaster economy, Chopo has enjoyed more variety in his career than most people will experience in a lifetime. From a struggling software vendor in the early 1980s, to a self-employed management consultant providing advice to some of Mexico's largest corporations, Chopo developed his "teachable point of view" as a matter of survival rather than fashion. "In Mexico, as a business owner, the only way to make it day to day was to form an opinion about the business environment." He admits, "I've always been vocal about these things and eventually people were interested in what I had to say."
Besides his many clients in Mexico, The Wall Street Journal certainly showed its interest when it quoted him in a series of articles about Mexico's economic development in 1994. He has yet to win a coveted black-and-white dot picture à la WSJ. "Maybe someday," Chopo laughs, "let me get through this program first."
Chopo's eclectic career began shortly after graduating from the prestigous Instituto Technologico de Monterrey (Mexico's version of MIT) with a degree in computer systems engineering. "I thought my attraction to unstructured environments was a weakness, but once I decided to start my own company I found it to be a huge advantage." Starting with a rented office, a computer, and an older friend, Chopo became the president and cofounder of a software services firm. "My partner had developed a software program for earthquake analysis on buildings. He wrote the code and I ran the computer. Business was slow."
The timing was right, though, for within a year a major earthquake struck Mexico City, sending civil engineers scrambling for just the type of services Chopo's fledgling business offered. "It was a little like striking gold. I learned so much in that job, about teamwork and leadership. I also found I liked solving people's problems when they came to me. Consulting was a natural fit for my personality." After seeing the firm quickly expand and then just as quickly shrink over the course of three years, Chopo decided to roll with the punches and try something new.
At that time many companies began viewing Mexico as an untapped market. Chopo saw that many U.S. companies entering the market were having a hard time grappling with just getting products onto the shelf, let alone worrying about the 4 P's. Starting with little more than his original rented office and computer, Chopo founded Inteligencia Competitiva, a market research firm designed to help companies navigate the chaotic Mexican marketplace.
"Although we started small," Chopo recalls, "Gillete and Company of Mexico granted the firm a record-breaking project in 1986. I literally had to jump into managing a project that required us to visit 400 wholesale outlets in 50 cities within Mexico every two months when, at the same time, we already had four other clients within Mexico City. I could not be overwhelmed: we had to deliver, and we did. It was crazy, though." Within a short time, Chopo's company grew from 5 people to over 60 and he went from a four-room office to a twenty-room complex in the heart of Mexico City's business district.
Gaining more experience in market research over the course of three years put Chopo in contact with a great many leaders of Mexican companies as he gathered market information for his clients. Inevitably, many of the same people he interviewed for his clients began asking his opinion on the business climate in Mexico and his recommendations for their companies.
"I would be having a talk with a CEO of a company, and he would suddenly start asking me my opinions on the direction the economy was taking and how his company could deal with it." Being a bright young man with a strong opinion, Chopo would proceed to let them have it with both barrels. "It felt natural, though, because this is what I was doing on the other end for my clients like Gillette." Eventually, Chopo and his firm became full-time advisors to Mexican companies in a variety of industries on competitive strategy, computer-based operations, and marketing.
Chopo's life during this time was more than just a bit hectic as he balanced meetings between small companies, government offices, and multi nationals sometimes in the same day. Like the Mexican economy, though, his firm's fortunes would turn on a dime from month to month.
Despite the turmoil and the uncertainty of management consulting in Mexico City, Chopo did find one constant. "I found my sense of purpose in the people that I have led when I lost my way." He recalled, "Once, in my lowest economic downturn as a consultant, the firm almost ran out of money. I had to fire some people, but I could not. They just did not leave. They patiently stood around until we were able to recuperate enough projects for everybody to have work again. They trusted me beyond myself, and that gave me the power to find the way to get our team going forward and growing again."
After running this business for several years and taking business courses in the United States, Chopo decided to trade one roller-coaster ride for another when he came to Michigan. When asked about plans for returning to Mexico, Chopo has strong ideas about his future direction. He plans on staying in the United States for at least 10 years to gain more experience in consulting and then return to Mexico with his new knowledge and skills.
"There has to be a vision," Chopo points out. "Mexico is still living day to day and doesn't have time to develop this vision of itself in the future. There is no 'science fiction' story for the country like there is for the United States. I want to stay here and form a better vision for Mexico and then go back and see what I can do with it. In spite of its trouble, Mexico can't be counted out. America had its problems, too, at one time. In a lot of ways Mexico is going through the same thing."
Given how far Chopo has come with his vision already, I wouldn't be surprised to see that WSJ dot picture in the relatively near future.
by Greg Lipper, MBA2
7:25 am: The
DC-9 turns onto the main runway and begins to accelerate. My body, little
use to seeing the light of day this early in the morning, is even less
happy about seeing the light at a speed of 500 miles an hour--before even
a cup of coffee (curse all HR managers who schedule flybacks at ungodly
hours; curse all airlines that don't offer complimentary coffee during
ungodly hours).
As we begin our ascent, I gaze dreamily out the window at the houses and cars getting smaller and smaller, wondering where everyone is going at this ungodly hour, where they work, what they do...and I realize I am one of them, on my way to the job of finding a job, on my way to...where??!!
At that moment I realize I have blanked out on who I am going to interview with. I glance at my boarding pass. Destination: Chicago. Gee, that narrows it down. I can't think of any company in Chicago I'm interviewing with. I click open my briefcase. A folder that says Fidelity rests on top, and then I remember that I'm meeting an HR manager from Fidelity in Chicago, even though the job is in Boston, for a reason that's as clear to me as the reason why I was put inside 200 tons of machinery traveling through the air at 500 miles an hour at 7:30 in the morning.
I strain to remember where we are meeting, and I fish through my briefcase full of unsent thank-you notes and unredeemed receipts looking for something--anything--resembling an address. I come across a large yellow Post-It note with a coffee stain in the bottom left corner, and all kinds of chicken-scratch on it. "Wynghn helol, 9:30, Imponmol," I read outloud. An elderly woman reading a Danielle Steele novel looks up from behind the pages and gives me a hostile stare. She reminds me of Broom Hilda. I look back, smile sheepishly, raise my right hand, and give her the Vulcan greeting. Clearly not a Trekkie, she hisses and buries her head back behind the steamy pages. While she reads about a woman who falls in love with a man who is really in love with another woman (why couldn't Danielle be a little more original--for instance, he's really in love with a goat?), I look intensely at my coffee-stained Post-it note, as if doing so will reveal the true meaning of the hidden code I pass off as handwriting.
I decide that "helol" must be "hotel." "Imponmol" means nothing to me, until I think back to a conversation I had with the sadistic HR manager. "... and don't forget, Greg, dress is informal...." "Imponmol is informal !" I cried out triumphantly. Broom Hilda's head popped up from behind her novel like a jack-in-the-box. She fired a few hate missiles my way with her fiery eyes, and then her entire head disappeared from sight as quickly as it had appeared. But I didn't care. I was more concerned with the fact that I was wearing a Hickey-Freeman dark blue suit, a silk tie, and a pair of shiny black shoes. Unless by "informal" the HR manager meant "not black tie," I was in serious trouble.
Worse yet, I still had no idea at which hotel I was meeting her. "Wynghn" sounded like a Deep South term for hanging out at the bus station. I doubted that's what she had in mind. The only thing I could do was call my wife, in the hope that she knew to which hotel I was supposed to go. (for those you who are unmarried, don't ask how a wife knows such things, she just does.)
I placed my briefcase down on the tray, pulled my credit card from my wallet, and used the in-flight phone to call home. While I was dialing, the stewardess came by to offer beverages. "Coffee--lots of it," I muttered while trying to figure out how on earth those phones work. As she poured me a cup, she looked over my annual reports of companies (recruiters), detailed notes (shopping list), calculator, laptop (borrowed from a friend so I could play Minesweeper), and spreadsheets (A712 homework). As she offered me the coffee, she said: "Having a busy morning, I see." I nodded, listening to an annoying recorded voice on the phone essentially telling me that I was an idiot for not being able to figure out how to use the darn thing. I looked up, and the stewardess was still hovering over me. Smiling, she said, "Making lots of money in the stock market?"
I just stared at her dumbfoundedly, having absolutely no idea what she was talking about. Then I realized, the phone, the briefcase, the suit, the laptop, the annual reports. She had mistaken a woefully disorganized job interviewee/student for a rich, successful money manager. Who was I to spoil her day? "Can you keep a secret?" I half-whispered, like a conspirator. "Oh, of course," she replied, leaning over even closer. "The mutual fund I manage," I continued, "well, it's small, only about $3 billion in assets, but we see a wonderful opportunity in--" I looked around me, and caught Broom Hilda trying to listen in on our conversation--"book publishers!"
"Really?"
"That's right. It seems the public just can't get enough of trashy novels," I said loud enough for Broom Hilda to hear.
"Yes, I've heard that."
"You have?"
"Oh yes. I own shares of Time-Warner because it's play on publishing and multimedia," she said with a smile, before pushing her beverage cart on down the aisle. I decided there and then that if airline stewardesses were exchanging stock tips with passengers, this bull market was nearing its end.
Finally, a dial tone! I punched in my number and Rochelle picked up on the second ring.
"Hi."
"Where are you calling from?"
"The plane."
"The plane? Why?"
"Oh, no reason, just to say, 'Hi'."
"You're calling me from an airplane to say 'hello'?"
"Sure. By the way, do you recall offhand what hotel I said I was going to?"
"Yes, the Wyndham. Why?"
"Oh, no reason, just wondering, you know, in case something happened, and you had to get in touch with me."
"You forgot where your interview is, didn't you?"
"No, of course not, what do you take me for?"
"Well, anyway, good luck with Sears."
"Thanks." I hung up.
I looked at my stack of annual reports. Right under the one for Fidelity was the one for Sears. I yanked at it half-heartedly. On the cover, in neat hand-writing, was a Post-It that read: "9:30 a.m., Wyndham Hotel."
I chugged down a big gulp of coffee and tried to remember whether this was a marketing or finance job....
Greg Lipper will be working at Fidelity next year, if he can remember at which city to show up.
by Steve Ellis, MBA Evening
Welcome back from Spring Break! I hope everyone had an enjoyable and relaxing week. We have a lot of events which will be happening in March and April so start planning now so that you can fit these events into your schedule.
MBA Evening Upcoming Events
During the second half of this semester, we have both an OCD/SGA presentation and the "Meet The Deans" presentation scheduled for both Ann Arbor and Commerce Park. Both of these events will provide useful and relevant information for MBA Evening Students. See the box below for dates, times, and location for these events.
The topic of the OCD/SGA event is "Recruiting Panel with Current MBA Evening Students" in which MBA Evening students who participated in the 1996-1997 recruiting season will tell you their recommendations for preparing for the recruiting process. The first 30 minutes of the session will allow each panelist to discuss his or her recommendations while the remaining 30 minutes will then be opened up for your questions. We will have panelists who concentrated their job searches in consulting, finance, and marketing. Plan to attend either our Ann Arbor or Commerce Park event as refreshments will be served.
In addition, we also have this semester's "Meet The Deans" event scheduled. For those of you unfamiliar with "Meet The Deans," this is your opportunity to ask questions to both Dean White and Dean Snyder, Associate Dean, about particular issues and concerns regarding the MBA Evening program or UMBS, in general. Issues which have been raised by students at past "Meet The Deans," including limited OCD training for MBA Evening students and lack of spring/summer classes, have been improved upon by Dean White and Dean Snyder's actions. The additional spring/summer classes which were added to this year's schedule are a direct result of the concerns which some of you raised at last semester's "Meet The Deans". Once again, we will have an assortment of food and beverage, so make your plans now to attend this event.
Graduation Announcement for MBA Evening Students
If you are a graduating MBA Evening student and plan to participate in the Business School graduation ceremony on Friday, May 2, you need to purchase a cap and gown. The cost for the cap and gown set is $37.00
For Ann Arbor students, caps and gowns will be on sale in the Student Lounge according to the following schedule:
| Monday, March 10 | 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. |
| Tuesday, March 11 | 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. |
| Wednesday, March 12 | 9:00 a.m.-7:15 p.m. |
| Thursday, March 13 | 9:00 a.m.-7.15 p.m. |
| Friday, March 14 | 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. |
For Commerce Park students, caps and gowns will be on sale in the main lobby according to the following schedule:
| Monday, March 17 | 5:00 p.m.-7:15 p.m. |
Herb Kelleher Lecture
This year's Business Leadership Award will be presented Friday, March 14, to Mr. Herb Kelleher, CEO and President of Southwest Airlines. Along with the award, Mr. Kelleher will be delivering a presentation to the B-school on business and leadership. The event will take place in Hale Auditorium, in Ann Arbor, at 1:30 p.m.
If you have an opportunity to miss work on Friday afternoon, I would highly recommend the opportunity to hear one of the most respected business leaders today speak. If you plan on attending, plan to arrive early enough as Hale Auditorium will certainly fill up for this event.
M-Track
We had a big jump this week in the number of MBA Evening students logging onto M-Track. (And since this column was actually written before Spring Break, I'm sure the numbers are even higher now as a lot of you probably spent some time during the week to log on.)
Currently, the numbers are at 529 students, which is an increase of 18 students from last issue. However, we still need 246 more students to get signed on before the end of the year. (In addition, if we can get 246 more students signed on before the end of the term, then I won't have to keep writing these weekly updates!). And, remember this week's M-Track slogan (with apologies to the writers of the film, "Jerry Maguire"), which is, "Show me the M-Track!"
Number of MBA Evening students signed onto M-Track
Last week's number 511
This week's number 529
End of winter term 1997 Goal 775
MBA Evening Events for March and April 1997
Ann Arbor
"Recruiting Panel": Tuesday, April 1 Room: TBA, 6:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m.
"Meet The Deans": Tuesday, April 15 Phelps Lounge, 6:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m.
Commerce Park
"Meet The Deans": Tuesday, March 25 Main Lobby, 5:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m.
"Recruiting Panel": Monday, March 31 Room: TBA, 6:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m.
by Elizabeth Ross, MBA'96
You may be in the process right now of figuring out "your life." Whether short-term or long-term planning, nonetheless it is difficult.
I had an experience last summer that impacted me in ways I could not have imagined. I hope that by briefly sharing my experience with you, you will consider all of your options more carefully.
This past summer [the summer of 1995] I did not have a traditional MBA brand management, consulting or finance internship. Instead, the Whirlpool Foundation sponsored me to spend the summer in Benton Harbor, Michigan, working as a Whirlpool Ambassador for the Link Crisis Intervention Center, a teenage runaway shelter. In addition to greeting Link employees each morning, I said "Good Morning" to Natasha, whose mother kicked her out of the house after discovering she was pregnant; Emily, who was brought to the shelter in the middle of the night after stealing her mother's car; and Jonathan who would not stop fighting with his younger sisters and needed a "time out" to learn how to better control his emotions and actions.
As an MBA Domestic Corps participant, I had the opportunity to develop a strategy for my work, determine the projects I wanted to complete, and, in essence, serve as an independent consultant for the Link. I met with Link counselors and employees, executive board members, community activists, juvenile court, Department of Social Services and Health Department employees, teenagers who used the Link facilities, their siblings and their parents. I also wrote and distributed a survey.
My interviews and analysis of the survey results led me to develop a comprehensive marketing plan so the Link management and employees can address the issues I uncovered. I also wrote and produced a 10-minute promotional video for the Link. I gained an increased understanding of the nonprofit sector and was able to illustrate how business tools and theories can be of value to not-for-profits.
My experience continued into the fall. I presented my recommendations to the Link's Executive Board at their annual retreat in Benton Harbor. I also spoke to Dean White, selected professors, and the UMBS National Campaign Committee about my experience. I returned to Benton Harbor a second time, with the other Whirlpool interns, to make a presentation to Whirlpool Foundation employees and their Board of Directors.
This summer I made a difference. I was paid a Wall Street salary to help youth get off streets less famous. I used my business skills to help a nonprofit organization learn how to market itself more effectively to its primary and secondary customers and become better positioned for future survival in the unpredictable social services industry.
This hands-on experience enhanced my business school education and gave me an opportunity to use my business skills in a non-corporate environment.
The Whirlpool Foundation grant to the MBA Domestic Corps will enable four MBA students to have 1997 summer internships with nonprofit organizations in areas of strategic importance to the Whirlpool Corporation. The MBA Domestic Corps is worth considering.
[Editor's Note: This article was originally published in the January 16, 1996, issue of The MSJ]
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Welcome Back: Much to the delight of students returning from Spring Break, Dominick's re-opens today. The Monroe Street establishment is closed for most of the winter as its owners typically head south for warmer climes. |  |
Photos by Charles L. Hornbrook
by Marc Andraca, MBA2
"In my view, it is clear that this firm failed to leverage cross-functional teams into strategic value-add propositions, thusly failing to identify and exploit sustainable core competencies."
To the outside observer, this statement may be interpreted as an agile mind responding to a complicated question with cutting insight. To the hardened MBA, the conclusion is somewhat different--clearly, this person has no clue. Instead, he or she has turned to the #1 MBA crutch: Business Babble.
At our distinguished business school (since the rankings, any reference to the B-school should be preceded by "distinguished"), intelligent, dedicated academics toil to extract powerful ideas from the vast marketplace of information, and try to teach them to us. In theory, we internalize these concepts and learn to wield them as effective captains of industry. Unfortunately, during the learning process, plenty of the terms coined to synthesize these complicated concepts are thrown about by us with less than exact precision. In fact, students regularly use Business Babble to hide the fact that we didn't read the case, or don't understand the interview question, or are currently on a different dimension (this is obvious to all involved, but sounds better than simply answering, "duh".)
And so, as MBA2s prepare themselves to journey beyond the school, and MBA1s gird themselves for a brief trip out during MAP, it might be instructive (heretical?) to offer a brief refresher on the true meaning of our business babblings:
| MBA said: | MBA meant: |
| Does the product align with our value proposition? | Are these Cheetos really greasy? |
| We must set up a cross-functional team. | Call in a bozo from every department. |
| Let's practice transformational leadership. | Quick, take off the tie, and put on one of those funky mandarin collar thingies! |
| I want to understand the cost drivers here. | Can I see your expense account? |
| What's the leverage ratio? | Why is the banker beating on my door? |
| This is an example of comparative advantage. | This is an example of the mysterious process by which a country grows and sells millions of bushels of bananas, and somehow magically gets a VCR in return. And this is a good deal. |
| Buy short! | Steal! |
| We must protect our brand equity. | Call Michael Jordan, he'll pitch anything. |
| I think we need to become an organization that is decentralized, lean, and closer to the customer. | Fire half the marketing department, and get the rest of the bums out on the street. |
| They are using the Kaizen system. | I have no idea what system they are using, but it's gotta be Japanese. |
| We are a customer-driven organization. | Ok, let's go over that again, why exactly do these people like Cheetos? |
by Scott Hunter, MBA2
I worked for Ford Motor Company last summer in the Manufacturing Business Planning area. I cannot say that my experience is representative of all or even most internships in OM, but I do hope that relating my experience will be useful to those who will be working in operations this summer and particularly those of you working on TMI summer projects.
In an Operations Management internship you are likely to be working with or under someone who is very familiar with the process that you will be examining. This individual may have already given a particular problem a great deal of thought and will be looking for the summer intern to carry an idea further, implement an idea, or brainstorm to develop solutions not yet considered. You might, on the other hand, be working as part of a larger team that is addressing a particular problem. Your role may be a small but integral part of a larger project.
Because in some industries the pace of change is very rapid, it is also possible that the scope of the project you will be working on will have changed since you interviewed or accepted the internship. In any case, before you start, you are going to need some pretty detailed background information on the nature of the problem, the goal of the project and the constraints that will be faced. Hence, one of the most important aspects of your summer experience will be data gathering.
If it is your mission to develop a better way, a new way or just a different way of producing or doing something, it is likely that the process is going to start with data collection. Depending on how well organized the operation is, data collection can be somewhat challenging. Frequently, when working with processes that take place in production facilities (for example at Ford, we looked at processes taking place within various Automotive Component Division facilities), data collection will require a lot of one-on-one contact with individuals familiar with the process. You are likely to find yourself conducting interviews with individuals from the entire spectrum of personnel related to the production process.
In conducting interviews it is important that you are well prepared. Most of the people you talk to will be very busy and will need to take time out of their schedule to spend time with you. The better prepared you are the better information you will get from your subject and the better impression you will leave. It is also important to conduct yourself in a friendly and professional manner. The better received you are, the more willing people will be to share information with you.
Another aspect of an operations management internship is the time you will spend in the production facility. Depending on the nature of the project, you may spend all or very little of your time in a factory. The more focused a project is on addressing a specific process, the more time you are likely to spend on site. Projects that deal more with overall process strategy, supply chain management or logistics may require you to spend more time in an office situation or behind a computer terminal. In these cases, visits to the production facility are usually scheduled for data collection and gaining an overall knowledge of how the process works.
The environment within the production facility is largely determined by the products that are being fabricated. Large industrial equipment tends to be made in large, noisy and sometimes very old facilities, while electronic components tend to be made in newer, and cleaner facilities. During your summer internship, opportunities will present themselves for you to visit and tour various facilities throughout the production process. Your supervisor can usually arrange for such tours. In addition, depending on the relationships you have established with people in the company, they may be willing to provide access to these sites. This is a great experience and you should take advantage of any opportunity you get. It is a chance to learn about production processes and the methods that the company may be planning for future production. It also provides you with an additional occasion to see how some of the theory you've learned in your first year of business school is applied in real life situations.
Finally, there are several things to keep in mind when starting your summer internship. First, make sure that the goals of the project are clearly understood by both parties. This will allow you to avoid the last minute misunderstandings that occur when you and your supervisors are aiming at two different targets. Second, develop definitive deliverables that you will be providing at the end of the summer. You should work closely with your supervisor in determining these and keep in mind you will be talking about these accomplishments when interviewing for permanent positions in the fall. Make sure they are challenging yet capable of being accomplished in time given. It is also important that your deliverables be determined as early as possible to avoid any last minute scrambling or revisions. Third, keep clear and open lines of communication between yourself and your supervisor. If there is something impeding your progress, it is important that you communicate the problem to your supervisor to get the situation resolved. Like your MAP faculty advisor, it is good to keep your supervisor apprised of any problems so that there are no unpleasant surprises in the 11th or 12th week of your summer.
Last, have fun and learn a lot. The summer internship is a 12 to 14 week trial run providing you an opportunity to learn about a business while contributing. It is also an opportunity for you to determine if you really like the functional area or industry in which you are working.
***
Scott Hunter is an MBA2 Career Counselor. Scott received his B.S. in electrical engineering from University of California, Davis. He worked at United Airlines in San Francisco and later at Raytheon as an electronics engineer. Scott is a joint degree student in the Tauber Manufacturing Institute (TMI) and is concentrating in Operations Management. Last summer Scott worked at Ford Motor Company in the area of manufacturing strategies in emerging markets. After graduation, Scott will be joining Pfizer in their Finance Development Program in New York.
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