July 7th marked the first time in my careers that I stayed for a full year with a company (not including the 4 1/2 years of my own business). To me that one year barrier is quite the personal accomplishment. It either says alot about my happiness at this stage of my life or Experian's high tolerance threshold for my bullshit (probably a little of both).
My first year at Experian has been one of constant change. I was hired as part of a new leadership rotational program. When I arrived, I discovered the head of the department (and founder of the rotational program) had moved on in the company - but was assured there would be no changes to the program. By month 2, the last managerial tie to the department moved on in the company and things began to become more ambiguous. By month 9, I was told that the rotational program was no more and that I would work solely in the Innovation Program. I can say it wasn't the structure I had hoped for coming out of school, but welcome to life in business; You have to make the most of your opportunities and this is the moral of the story I will share with you.
While our program was slowly disintegrating, my colleague (fellow Merage'08 Chris Ting) and I had a great deal of freedom and access to senior leaders in a large multi-national corporation. That is a great opportunity. During the confusion of months 3-8, we decided to start a project advocating an enterprise "social network". We hung legitimacy of the project on an off-handed comment a senior leader made to us in a meeting - That opened alot of doors. We were told that this had been tried a number of times and met with failure. To the credit of Chris and I, we kept pushing the issue (taking the "take action now, ask for forgiveness later" approach). Somehow, the pushing got us audiences with the right people and good buzz with other leaders (Maybe I shouldn't use the word "good" because we definitely ruffled some feathers with our awkward navigation of the political environment). The next thing we know, we were doing a fully sanctioned research project - but we were told it would never get funded.
I would like to say it was due to conviction, but I am sure a lack of knowing better contributed significantly to how we continued to push the project. I remember being told, "you have done good work but I don't seeing us funding it". Two months later the project was approved. Once we got beyond the research stage, we received the help of numerous other key individuals in the organization without whom this project would have died. More credit needs to go to them because often the project moved forward in spite of us as we learned hands on how to navigate Experian's waters. So while we can't take credit for the project's final approval, we can take credit for relentlessly pushing this idea to anyone who would listen and keeping the project alive until the experts got the final approval - and in my first year I will happily take that with all the practical learning.
Full credit also goes our to my partner in crime, Chris Ting. Without whom this project would have gone nowhere.
I guess the lesson is when you start working and work doesn't turn out to be what you had thought, roll with the punches, look for the opportunities, and attack those opportunities.
Now, I am back full time in the science of innovation. I am trying to find the best data to track and evaluate our efforts and finding the best models to move forward the right projects in a complex organization. At some point I will want to be more actively involved in the product development, but for now I am learning alot about the art.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Sunday, November 09, 2008
MBA Career in Real Life
I've been at Experian for the past four months. By virtue of being in a "rotational" position and initially working in an area like innovation, I have been lucky to have a great degree of latitude on what I work on and amazing access to key individuals at the company. Of course when many high level executives are aware of what we work on, our names may come up in management meetings. That is what happened to me and my colleague this week.
We have been working on one project that we are particularly passionate about. It was sort of an unofficial, underground project which, when the opportunity presented, we tried to make the most. I guess we have been raising awareness because we were surprised that the project was raised in a meeting that our North American CEO was sitting in.
In a funny sense of timing we were scheduled to meet with him the next day. It was meant to be more of a "how are things going" meeting. After the CEO's meeting the day before he decided to morph it into a project pitch meeting and invited our project sponsor. We discovered this a half-hour before our meeting.
Adding to the awkwardness of the situation was that we had yet to show our sponsor our updated proposal, so he walked into the meeting completely unaware of what we were going to say.
The meeting started with introductions, a couple of light jokes, and then the CEO looked at us and said "Go ahead." Four months in, working on an underground project, without input from our sponsor, and we have to deliver an impromptu presentation to our NA CEO.
Welcome to the business world MBAs.
It was a tough lesson that when you are playing at this level, raising awareness throughout an organization, you need to be prepared to advance your causes at any situation.
We have been working on one project that we are particularly passionate about. It was sort of an unofficial, underground project which, when the opportunity presented, we tried to make the most. I guess we have been raising awareness because we were surprised that the project was raised in a meeting that our North American CEO was sitting in.
In a funny sense of timing we were scheduled to meet with him the next day. It was meant to be more of a "how are things going" meeting. After the CEO's meeting the day before he decided to morph it into a project pitch meeting and invited our project sponsor. We discovered this a half-hour before our meeting.
Adding to the awkwardness of the situation was that we had yet to show our sponsor our updated proposal, so he walked into the meeting completely unaware of what we were going to say.
The meeting started with introductions, a couple of light jokes, and then the CEO looked at us and said "Go ahead." Four months in, working on an underground project, without input from our sponsor, and we have to deliver an impromptu presentation to our NA CEO.
Welcome to the business world MBAs.
It was a tough lesson that when you are playing at this level, raising awareness throughout an organization, you need to be prepared to advance your causes at any situation.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Economy's Getting Tougher
The market has been taking it hard the last few weeks. Obviously, the banks are hurting which doesn't help Experian, but to Experian's credit the last few years they have engaged in some very smart acquisitions that broadened their markets, geographical reach, and enhanced their data assets. This will serve them well over the next few years.
The market has made money tight in the company. Chris and I are trying to get the company to adopt a social networking platform. I think we built alot of support for the initiative, but we need to find a way through the belt-tightening to get the final approval. Belt tightening also affected our plans for the Synergy & Innnovation group. We had a grand vision to fuel our cross-business unit innovation, but budget cut into that idea. The good news is that our leader has given us his vision for the group, so we can charge right at making it a reality.
I hope my family member's retirement funds are alright in this down-market. If you are still in stocks, no matter how nervous you get, don't hide your investments in cash or gold. The market has dropped almost 50% from its last peak, so buy low. Buy and forget about it, don't read about the market, just tune it all out and revisit your portfolio in 5 yrs. If you are retiring before then, you should have already had your money in low-risk investments, so stay the course and enjoy retirement.
The market has made money tight in the company. Chris and I are trying to get the company to adopt a social networking platform. I think we built alot of support for the initiative, but we need to find a way through the belt-tightening to get the final approval. Belt tightening also affected our plans for the Synergy & Innnovation group. We had a grand vision to fuel our cross-business unit innovation, but budget cut into that idea. The good news is that our leader has given us his vision for the group, so we can charge right at making it a reality.
I hope my family member's retirement funds are alright in this down-market. If you are still in stocks, no matter how nervous you get, don't hide your investments in cash or gold. The market has dropped almost 50% from its last peak, so buy low. Buy and forget about it, don't read about the market, just tune it all out and revisit your portfolio in 5 yrs. If you are retiring before then, you should have already had your money in low-risk investments, so stay the course and enjoy retirement.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Hit the First Work Wall
It's Friday afternoon and I am listening to some musicians playing Jimi Hendrix on the beach. They are setting up for this weekend's annual Polynesian festival. There seems to be something going on right across the street every weekend.
I was lucky with traffic and able to get home before 5pm. I try to leave work around 4pm on Friday's as my reward for a week of work where I get in for 8am. This week was tough in that I am hitting my first wall. I don't know about everyone else, but I always seem to hit a period where I have taken in so much information that my head gets cloudy and my productivity drops. Normally this happens in week 6 or 7 (this is week 7 for me). I have grown to accept that this is the way I work, try not to be ridiculously unproductive, and let my head settle.
Work is going well. Chris (my team mate and fellow Merage grad) and I arranged to meet with the CFO next week to discuss our proposal to improve our innovation process. Our discussion paper is complete and sent to the CFO so he would know what we are talking about. The paper looks pretty good. We could have gone into more details with the specific numbers, but at this point we would be making pretty big assumptions and the numbers are only a small part of what we want to improve.
Improving the innovation process in a multi-national, muli-business line company is an incredible challenge. In business school we talk about how to fuel new ideas, good environments for creativity, how to commercialize ideas, but I don't think any school talks about how these wonderful theories can work in any incredibly complex organization. In a one business unit company, its easy to align priorities. In a multi-business line company you have competeting interests, infrastructure issues, political issues, and financial resources you need to structure properly before you can even think about creating that environment. So I am a bit lost for the moment as I try to understand this environment in 3 months which realistically should take me 5 years. This may have contributed to the head fog...
I was lucky with traffic and able to get home before 5pm. I try to leave work around 4pm on Friday's as my reward for a week of work where I get in for 8am. This week was tough in that I am hitting my first wall. I don't know about everyone else, but I always seem to hit a period where I have taken in so much information that my head gets cloudy and my productivity drops. Normally this happens in week 6 or 7 (this is week 7 for me). I have grown to accept that this is the way I work, try not to be ridiculously unproductive, and let my head settle.
Work is going well. Chris (my team mate and fellow Merage grad) and I arranged to meet with the CFO next week to discuss our proposal to improve our innovation process. Our discussion paper is complete and sent to the CFO so he would know what we are talking about. The paper looks pretty good. We could have gone into more details with the specific numbers, but at this point we would be making pretty big assumptions and the numbers are only a small part of what we want to improve.
Improving the innovation process in a multi-national, muli-business line company is an incredible challenge. In business school we talk about how to fuel new ideas, good environments for creativity, how to commercialize ideas, but I don't think any school talks about how these wonderful theories can work in any incredibly complex organization. In a one business unit company, its easy to align priorities. In a multi-business line company you have competeting interests, infrastructure issues, political issues, and financial resources you need to structure properly before you can even think about creating that environment. So I am a bit lost for the moment as I try to understand this environment in 3 months which realistically should take me 5 years. This may have contributed to the head fog...
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Working For a Living is Different
After 21 months of working on numerous projects, analyzing processes, making recommendations for a variety of topics and companies, it feels somewhat unusual to continuously focus all my efforts on a single company. The great thing about this is that I will have the chance to make a real impact on my company by gradually building influence for some of my ideas.
To date, my job has been incredibly enjoyable. No large company is perfect, but there are a number of things to admire about Experian. It is efficient, has a nice collection of strategic data assets that few can match, and quality people. They have allowed me to slowly settle in by giving me only one project to focus on. This has allowed me to spend some time getting to better know the business and the company.
I am working on my project with another Merage colleague. We were tasked with recommending and implementing better idea evaluation tools into Experian's innovation process (oddly enough a similar project to the one I did in my experiential learning class). Through discussions with executives we have taken it upon ourselves to also recommend changes to the innovation process. So far, we have received a lot of support for our direction, but I can see a number of barriers that we will have to delicately tip toe if we want to improve this critical process.
It's turning out to be a real exciting project. I am not sure if many MBA's straight out of school get the opportunity to lead a project with such impact across a billion dollar multiple business line company. That makes the challenge fun.
Other than that just enjoying our appartment. On certain days the commute can suck (50+ minutes), but I get home on that patio and look at the ocean, a sense of relaxation comes over me (oh yeah, and its nice to see my wife too).
To date, my job has been incredibly enjoyable. No large company is perfect, but there are a number of things to admire about Experian. It is efficient, has a nice collection of strategic data assets that few can match, and quality people. They have allowed me to slowly settle in by giving me only one project to focus on. This has allowed me to spend some time getting to better know the business and the company.
I am working on my project with another Merage colleague. We were tasked with recommending and implementing better idea evaluation tools into Experian's innovation process (oddly enough a similar project to the one I did in my experiential learning class). Through discussions with executives we have taken it upon ourselves to also recommend changes to the innovation process. So far, we have received a lot of support for our direction, but I can see a number of barriers that we will have to delicately tip toe if we want to improve this critical process.
It's turning out to be a real exciting project. I am not sure if many MBA's straight out of school get the opportunity to lead a project with such impact across a billion dollar multiple business line company. That makes the challenge fun.
Other than that just enjoying our appartment. On certain days the commute can suck (50+ minutes), but I get home on that patio and look at the ocean, a sense of relaxation comes over me (oh yeah, and its nice to see my wife too).
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Some Additional Questions
I recently had a discussion about Merage on my professional blog. I wanted to reproduce the discussion here because I answer a number of questions about Merage that you might be interested in.
5 Comments
Friday, July 11, 2008
Our California Dream Apartment
Here's our building
I just sat on the patio. Isn't is awesome.
We're up on the upper level - See there's Lindsey!
Here is the inside. Lindsey got the Landlords to put in new flooring before we moved in. Lindsey did a good job of decoraing.
I just sat on the patio. Isn't is awesome.
And here is the view. This sealed the deal on us picking this place.
It makes for a pretty good party place too!
It makes for a pretty good party place too!
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I have a few questions about Merage, and was hoping you can give me some honest answers. I've spoken with adcom staff and student ambassadors, but wanted to get another opinion. :)
1) How was the job placement this year? Did most students get jobs of their choice?
2) Do you know what the average starting salary was? I was surprised to discover that the average starting salary for Merage students in 2007 was almost $20K less than schools with the same ranking..
3) What is the job placement like for the Bay Area? I eventually want to move back to the Bay Area, but it seems like most Merage students stay in the OC. So, just a little concerned.
Your input is greatly appreciated! Oh, and major congrats on graduating and scoring a cool job!
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Thanks for you kind words.
Some honest answers to your questions.
1) Job placement was tougher this year due to the economy. I think we may be
lower than last year for placement before graduation, but I expect we'll be
equivalent for placement after 3 months. The interesting thing about hiring
this year was that despite the down turn there were a number of very high
profile jobs posted - so companies are still making strategic hires at
Merage.
2) Average starting salaries are a distorted measure used by ranking
systems. It is difficult to talk about average starting salaries without
first talking about the job type. As an example consulting generally pays a
higher salary due to the life demands it puts on its employees (so schools
who produce a higher ratio of consultants will have their average salary
inflated). While I don't necessarily think 20K lower is correct, you are
right to note that salaries from Merage are generally lower than similar
ranked programs. This is because a high percentage of its students remain in
Southern California. Salaries in the OC are often subject to what I call the
"lifestyle tax". Because it is such an attractive area to live, there are
more candidates for jobs, pushing down wages. This "lifestyle tax"
artificially lowers Merage's average starting salary. I hope you get my
drift why I say the average starting salary is a skewed school indicator. I
will say as a person who grew up with humid summers and cold winters the
lifestyle is wonderful and I am willing to accept the "tax".
3) Interestingly, this year we have a number of students going to work up in
the bay area (5-10% of the class). The companies range from start-ups to big
companies like HP. Last year, we had a student get into google. I won't say
trying to find a job in the bay area is easy. You will be mostly on your own
and will need to actively network with people in the area starting now if
you want to go back with a great position. I suggest find conferences that
suit your preferred industry/job function that are hosted in the bay area.
That raises the chances of people from the area attending. Then network and
stay in contact with those people. The conferences worked out real well for
me this year (I had three solid job opportunities arise) and I recommend
start doing it as a first year.
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Great tip about starting early with networking! Where can I find these industry conferences? Any tips?
Also, I am seriously considering studying abroad for a quarter (something I always regretted not doing in college). Do many Merage students study abroad? Would studying abroad for a quarter put you behind other students (in terms of job search/accumulating enough credits to graduate)?
Thanks in advance!!
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To your follow ups:
1. You can track down conferences by reading blogs in your field of
interest, tracking down professional associations of field of interest, or
often if you have a target company they will highlight which conferences
they go to on their web page (or just do a google search).
2. Many students do a study abroad and it is a fantastic experience. You
will be behind on job search if your primary field of interest is consulting
or working with a large company with an established MBA hire program.
Otherwise job search doesn't ramp up until February onward. I used my Q1
Year 2 to ramp up my networking in order to hit the ground running in Q2.
Good luck.
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