|
|
mblood@umich.edu
As I sit down to read about the world of marketing for the first time, my thoughts of the exciting road ahead distract me, if only for a moment, from the enticing case study before my eyes. I am both inspired and in awe of the high-caliber of students who make up the Michigan MBA program. Surrounded by a CPA from India, a marketing expert from Peru, and a Californian who started his own company, I sometimes wonder if I will even be able to compete. But, the cooperative atmosphere and shared enthusiasm among us students quickly reminds me that this place is tryly about winning together.
I chose Michigan for the people, hands down, as this makes all the difference in the world, especially when the chips are down in challenging situations. I am not sure how the admissions board screens people, but from what I can tell, they do an outstanding job of bringing together top-notch individuals in this fine institution. I am eager for the friendships we will form; the bonds we will share as a section, class, and school; and the opportunity of a lifetime with the sharpest minds from around the globe.
And so, my anticipation to dive into the program grows stronger daily. Some of you may think, "Is this guy crazy?" After all, by now, we are up to our ears in case studies, cold-calling, working late on projects, and sacrificing football games to study. Oh, did I go to far? Just kidding. GO BLUE! I'll be the first one at the tailgates!
The point is that we know achieving goals here will not be easy. We will
struggle, but I submit that in a few short years all the difficult moments
of our Michigan experience will be long forgotten. In the end, what will
be remembered most fondly of our experience are the incredible friendships
that we form and nurture over the years. Today those friendships start -
I am eager to make them, stretch my imagination through them, and watch
them grow. Dean White and faculty, thank you for welcoming us and laying
the foundation for our wonderful experience here. UMBS is full of opportunities:
Make no mistake about it: the time to engage is NOW! 
|
 |
Above: Menno Ellis, MBA2 -left, recruits Antonio Banderas to join the MBA staff. |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
The MSJ WANTS YOU!
|
 |
|
 |
 |
|
rcrespi@umich.edu
I spent this past summer in Chicago interning at Ernst & Young. Although I had a valuable learning experience at E&Y, the most important thing I learned this summer was that parking on the street in Chicago is quite hazardous. Here's my story.
I moved to Chicago on Thursday, June 4, where I had sublet an apartment in Lincoln Park two blocks from the lake. At the time I asked the building manager whether it was okay to park my car on the street. He said it was fine, although finding a spot would be difficult. So I decided to chance it, since it was a nice neighborhood and there were lots of expensive cars parked on the street.
The next evening, Friday, I went up to Northwestern to go out with friends at Kellogg. I returned home at 1 A.M., and, after 20 minutes of searching, found a perfectly legal parking spot about 10 minutes from my apartment. I double checked the signs to make sure the spot was legal, put "The Club" on my steering wheel, locked the car, and went to sleep.
Sunday afternoon I went to get my car to drive up to see my relatives.
No car. I walked up and down the street to be sure, but my car was definitely
gone. I went back to my apartment and called the city to see if they had
any information about my car. They said they didn't , but that I should
call the department of sanitation which handles 
towing. I called them and, naturally, they had no record of my car either.
So I filed a stolen car report called my insurance company, and then took
the "L" to have dinner at my relatives.
Of course, family is family, so they had to make me feel great. My cousin said, "Well, I'm not surprised it is Chicago and you had a nice car (1996 Probe GT) it was only a matter of time before it was stolen. You'll probably get it back in a few days all torn down it had to be a professional since you had the Club on the steering wheel."
The police told me to call Tuesday night to see if the car had been recovered. I did; it had not. Now, this was the same night that the Bulls won the NBA championship. So I was having images of turning on the TV and seeing my car on fire being rolled over by riots on the South Side. At this point I was checking new car prices on the web and figuring out how much more debt I was about to go into.
Wednesday morning at 4:30 A.M. - the phone woke me up. It was the city of Chicago calling me to inform me that they found my car and that I could pick it up at the city pound. The condition of my car was described as "driveable."
So after work Wednesday my relatives picked me up and took me to the city pound. I got out to my car and it hadn't been broken into. The club was still on the steering wheel, my CD player was still in the glove compartment nothing was taken. The only damage I saw was a big gash on the rear bumper. So I paid the $115 for towing and storage and drove my car up to my relatives' home, where we had agreed I would keep it. Unfortunately, it took me about two minutes to realize that the suspension was all screwed up. So what happened? Here's the summary of what took me two weeks to find out:
The city of Chicago decided to do some street work, so they towed two blocks of legally parked cars (including my own) to a nearby parking lot. However, it took them three days to get my car into the computer system. During this time I had reported the car as stolen. When the car did get into the system, they towed it again to the pound - since my car had out of state plates and was reported stolen. Since I have a manual transmission, I park the car in gear with the parking brake up. So, the city towed the car without releasing the parking brake in effect dragging the rear axle all the way across town to the pound. They also put the gash in the bumper during the towing.
$800 later I got my car back from the repair shop. My insurance company fully reimbursed me (gotta love USAA) and is suing the city of Chicago to recover the damages.
I left my car at my relatives' for most of the rest of the summer. And if I move back to Chicago next summer, I will be sure to get a private parking spot.
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
kpulverm@umich.edu
Like many of us, I came to the Go Blue Rendezvous and I went to QSW. I met great people....many that I thought could become some of my closest friends. Little did I know what sectional behaviors would be promoted at LDP.
On Tuesday morning we were supposed to wear our light green shirts (section 4). The problem was that I was out drinking too many two-dollar pitchers on Monday night and on the way home around the midnight hour I recalled that my green shirt was still in the washer. I put it in dryer knowing that it was a bit late to be drying clothes, but fearful of being sectionally exploited if I didn't wear the right garb. In the morning, I was a bit rushed after hitting the 15-minute snooze twice. When I went downstairs to get my shirt, I found it sopping wet. My hypothesis is that a housemate from another section might have been disturbed by my late night drying and shut off the dryer. (no doubt an unintentional act of sectional harassment) I was forced to put on another shirt. Feeling sectionally confused and woefully sectionally inadequate, I ran to the Power Center. After the morning session, I ran home to get my shirt. By the time I got back, the sectional feelings were really running high and my section had already been divided by sub-sectional preference. I was put into a group that was already engaged in sects acts. My team was great, but as the nature of sectional politics became clearer, I wondered if I would ever be allowed to mix with the friends I met at Go Blue and QSW. The Second year leaders were definitely pushing an agenda of homosectionality (not that there is anything wrong with that).
By the time the closing ceremony was held on Thursday sectional preferences and sectional orientations had become very clear. Sectional intercourse was already frowned upon. To show our sectional prowess we were encouraged by the sectional leaders to engage in obscene sects acts and to sectionally harass other sections. Sectional doctrines and tales of sectional bravado spewed forth from the stage.
Challenged to think about what I stood for, I put the events of the last week into context and decided that my tenure at University of Michigan would be about sectional integration, sectional healing, and regular sectional intercourse.
In this context I challenge you to think about what you stand for. While it is true our classmates are some of the brightest, most interesting, and motivated people we will encounter in our lives, each of us brings different objectives for our time here. The people that will most help you grow and shape your future will not be equally distributed into arbitrary sections. As you wrestle with your budding sectionality I challenge you to consider other sectional lifestyles. Don't misunderstand me, I do still love my section, but I am not now, and have never been a homosectional.
With this as food for thought, I encourage you to explore your sectionality. Like the artificial divides that have separated many of us throughout our young lives (sports teams, fraternities, sororities, etc.), sectional boundaries can limit the benefit of the incredible resource we have in each other. Going forward, I challenge you to replace the now trite line "What section are you in?" with "What is your sectional preference?" Question sectionally limiting practices and encourage your sects partners to seek out friends and colleagues without regard to sectional affiliation. Finally, I challenge you to do your part in ensuring that sectional politics never impinge upon our collective goal of making the experience of attending the University of Michigan Business School the most memorable one of our lives.
To assist you in correctly using sectional language, with the help of several colleagues (outside my section), we offer the following definitions.
Bi-sectional Having strong affiliations to two sections.
Homosectionality Only associating with people in your own section.
Safe Sects Have good, clean fun in your section without resorting to a cult-like mentality.
Sectional Agenda the doctrine of your section. (Ours is to be MBA games and core grades victors. History dictates that we'll have a better chance at the latter, but I've still got my fingers crossed. "Four, four, four. We score more....")
Sectional Ambiguity Not being exactly sure what section you are in. (If someone tells you that you are in the wrong class, you'll know that you are suffering from this.) Also see Sectional Awareness.
Sectional Awareness Being relatively certain what section you are in. (Evidenced by making it to most classes.)
Sectional Discrimination Not inviting people from other sections to scheduled unwinding (read drinking) opportunities.
Sectional Dysfunction Inability to bond as a section.
Sectional Exploitation Admiring another section just because of the attractiveness of their members of the opposite sex.
Sectional Harassment hazing someone just because of their sectional orientation.
Sectional Healing Warm and fuzzy exercises to promote bonding after a period of sectional dysfunction.
Sectional Intercourse Discussion and/or other exchanges between sections.
Sectional Therapy Assistance given to members of dysfunctional sections or individuals that are experiencing sectional ambiguity.
Sects Acts Fun and games with your section.
Trans-sectional Mentally transitioned to another section, but pre-operation.
Disclaimer (we learn to write these next year, but here it goes): In this article the language of sex has been used as a metaphor for the sectional politics that are a part of the business school experience. No commentary on actual sexual attitudes or preferences is intended or implied.
rcrespi@umich.edu
Well, I know that you've had a great summer and are now back in Ann Arbor
looking to cause trouble. Therefore, I've decided to bring ou: Masochistic/Sadistic/
Crazy Things To Do In And Around Little, Lazy, Ann Arbor
With all that free time you have in B-School, I'm sure you'll be excited about participating in these suggestions. (I recommend getting quality health insurance before attempting most of these.)
* Reserve your flight for Thanksgiving on an airline other than Northwest. Get to the airport early, walk through the Northwest terminal at Metro Airport and laugh at all the people who are flying Northwest. (This assumes the strike is over by then.) Masochistic option book on Northwest.
Put on every item of Michigan clothing you own, drive to Columbus, and walk into a bar chanting: "1-8-1" while playing a tape of "The Victors."
* Walk through the Diag with a huge placard saying, "Flag burners supporting the extinction of the spotted owl." Duck when the entire LSA school attacks.
* Find hree friends with cars. Drive side by side on I-94 to Detroit during rush hour at the speed limit. Then spend the day in Detroit.
* Dress up, set up a fancy dinner table with your girlfriend outside Hale, and then serve yourself all the leftovers from the Kraft reception.
* Eat Y&S sandwich wraps in the student lounge for lunch every day for the entire year.
* Tattoo your earning potential on your forehead, then go to Rick's and hit on undergrads.
* Weld shut the doors of every coffee shop on campus during finals week.
* Study.
lsreeves@umich.edu, lisasdy@umich.edu
Editors Note: This is a re-print of an article that appeared in the Fall 1998 edition of The Window, a publication of the William Davidson Insitute.
The William Davidson Institute dispatched Laura Reeves and Lisa DeYoung, both MBA students at the University of Michigan Business School, and Michael Ho, an MPPM student at the Yale School of Management, to the interior of China to work with a bus manufacturer.
The Chengdu Bus Factory (CBF) is a small state-owned enterprise (SOE)
in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province in China. Because Chengdu is
not a coastal city, its experiences with high technology and foreign 
investment are just beginning. Amid the high growth
being experienced by the automotive and utility industries, three William
Davidson Institute Internship Fellows arrived at Chengdu Bus to conduct
an assessment of the factoryís production management process.
CBF produces 1,200 buses a year in facilities which were acquired in the late 1980s. The factory has 500 active employees and, because of the structure of the Chinese welfare system, continues to support 700 retired and inactive employees. CBF workers are divided among six job shops which represent multiple functions from internal manufacturing of parts to paint shops to final bus assembly. The production process, similar to that of many other Chinese SOEs of CBF's size, is characterized by a low degree of automation and extensive manual labor.
The Davidson Institute internship team performed an overall operational analysis of CBF and in doing so worked closely with the management and engineering staff to develop innovative solutions to everyday challenges. For example, CBF faced repeated incidences of inventory shortages leading to delayed customer orders. Because information technology was not an immediately viable alternative for this company, the team worked with production and research engineers to develop a system by which inventory could be counted, classified, and reliably maintained. The team's other recommendations spanned the entirety of CBF's operations and included proposals for management training, product management, process control, and inventory management.
Prior to the arrival of the Davidson Institute team at Chengdu Bus, the factory's management was unsure of the value that the team would add to such a traditional enterprise. CBF had never worked with people from outside of China prior to this experience. Understanding that a traditional enterprise in a dynamic environment must emerge, however, the managers welcomed the team and allowed them open access to the factory personnel, information, and grounds. The factory took a chance, was welcoming, and, the team believes, was rewarded for taking this risk.
For the team, too, the experience was both challenging and rewarding. Operating in both a new country and in a new enterprise structure was overwhelming at times, but the opportunity to change, adapt, and apply Western concepts in such an environment was exciting and broadened our perspectives. Developing relationships with the factory personnel was one key to the team's acclimation and success. People were so interested in discussing business issues with the team, that within the first few weeks, the team had interviewed people from every functional area.
The energy and excitement which CBF management displayed to the Davidson Institute fellows, demonstrates that CBF is highly dedicated to its success. As the economy rapidly emerges, as automotive competition mounts and joint ventures in China increase the standards for buses, CBF too must develop. The factory's plans for the future, in addition to implementing the Davidson Institute's recommendations, include seeking foreign investment, improving production capacity, and improving product quality. CBF recently selected an internal task force to begin working on ISO 9001 certification.
On the team's last day in the factory, we held a presentation to summarize the project results for the factory management. The showing was impressive and the interest in adopting the team's recommendations was astounding. Mr. Wang Rong Kun, the Factory Director, reiterated his appreciation by saying, ìI am quite impressed both with the team's candor in assessing our issues and with the team's constructive and attainable recommendations. We will begin implementing the recommendations as soon as possible.
To learn more about WDI please visit our web-site at www.wdi.bus.umich.edu, or call Nancy Weatherford, Program Coordinator, at 936-6970, email is weathern@umich.edu. Information sessions to be held September 18th and 25th from 12:00 - 1:00 in P2011.
Technology | Corporate | Global Blue | Alumni
