November Newsletter

Strategy Students and Alumni,

We hope you’re doing great. We missed a couple of months of the newsletter due to the reunion and business, but here’s a few thoughts from Nate and I along with a reunion recap and update on the strategy program (attached) by Professor Benson. (Thanks Dr. Benson for your help with the reunion!!) Please open the attachment - it's well worth your time!

We hope the reunion will become a well-attended, important event for you in the years to come. I know I enjoyed meeting some of the 2011 students as well as meeting up with my classmates and learning from Jeron Paul (a stud VC) and the professors.

Spiritual (kind of) /Sports Thought (by LaDon)

I’ve started listening to Bronco Mendenhall’s radio show “BYU Football with Bronco Mendenhall” along with the coach’s show each week. I’ve been really impressed with a couple of things:

1) Bronco is an avid reader. He thinks learning anything good relates to many different aspects of life, including football.
2) Bronco said the following about Vic So’oto one week. (slightly paraphrasing) “Vic and I have spent a lot of good and bad times together in my office, and I’ve been able to see him develop into a fine man. I wouldn’t trade the growth I’ve seen in him for an undefeated record.” At the time BYU was 2-5. I know a lot of people would trade anything for an undefeated season, but Bronco wants to see those football players become better people more than that.
3) I didn’t play football, so I don’t really know offenses or defenses. On the coach’s show Bronco walks through a play or situation, explaining what should happen and why. I really enjoy learning about that.

Here’s the links:

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=841, http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=498&sid=13406516

Cool Link / Non-profits (by Nate)

Here's a non-profit that I have been really impressed with: www.charitywater.org

For those interested in starting their own non-profit, this is a great model.

Asia (by Nate)

Recently, my company (Aon) acquired one of our competitors--Hewitt and Associates. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to move to Singapore for two months to work on the integration for the Asia Pacific region. I thought I would share some of the interesting things about working in Asia and a few things that I learned.

First off, Singapore is great and if you ever have the opportunity to do an ex-pat stint in Asia I would definitely recommend you push for Singapore. Alternatively, Hong Kong is the other popular destination that all of the ex-pats speak highly of. Singapore is unique in the sense that as an American you feel that you are in Asia but in the States at the same time. Except that they don't sell gum and are strict on a plethora of other small things like that. The city is very clean, most everyone speaks English and it is a great place to live.

I think the biggest take away for me being in Asia from a corporate perspective is that executives (and their teams) of multi-national companies tend to forget about Asia and the very unique issues the region faces. The fact that it is difficult to communicate with Asia due to the time difference, in my opinion, is a big part of this issue. I think this insight can be applied to any company. There will always be a division, business unit, or market that feels that it is left out and not united with the firm. Perhaps not always, but it is something that I believe leaders should always be looking out for to make sure their organizations are unified.

The second biggest thing that I learned is that asking for feedback is critical. Part of my role while I was down there was to help design the organization structure and facilitate the communication to the region. Many people were surprised at how open I was at asking for their feedback on the org structure. Because they were open with me, we were able to identify people that weren't happy with the structure and were considering leaving. They may still leave but at least we have a chance to resolve their concerns. Bottom line, always ask for feedback on your work.

Hopefully part of what I shared is somewhat interesting or insightful.

Book Review (by Nate)

Drive by Daniel Pink (http://www.danpink.com/drive)

While I was in Singapore, I met a great guy who recommended a book to me called Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates US by Daniel Pink. The book blew me away. Whether you are a business leader, political leader, teacher, or parent, this book will help you motivate yourself and those around you. The author is basically arguing that the way we motivate employees, students, and children is pretty much backwards. The book itself is only 146 pages and focuses on Type I motivation or intrinsic motivation. His ‘Twitter’ summary of the book goes like this: “Carrots & sticks are so last century. Drive says for 21^st century work, we need to upgrade autonomy, mastery, and purpose.

The weird thing about this book was that the leader that kept creeping into my mind as I read the book was Bronco Mendenhall. Autonomy, mastery, and purpose seem to be what his program is all about and he has had some success. Funny how many were arguing that they didn’t give Jake Heaps enough autonomy on that last drive. I guess that is for a different discussion. : ) Pick up the book, read it over Christmas; it will be a great tool for New Year’s resolutions.

January Newsletter

All-

Happy New Year! We hope that 2010 is treating you well so far. We apologize for not getting a newsletter out during the past few months and plan on sending out one once a month for the year. I guess you could say that is the New Year's Resolution of the newsletter. Congratulations to those of you who have recently started the program and are currently in Dr. Dyer's class. LaDon Linde and I are trying to send out a monthly newsletter to all of the strategy major alumni. Even if you are brand new to the program, we welcome your feedback and ideas for the newsletter. Best of luck to the 2nd year students with your job hunt and let us know if we can do anything to help you out.

This month, we have two things to share with you: a cool website and some fantastic advice from Andrea Thomas (SVP of Private Label Brands at Wal-Mart). Big thanks to LaDon for taking the time to speak with her and write up the advice she offered--it is great!

Hope you all are doing well.

Nate and LaDon
www.byustrategy.blogspot.com

Website
www.khanacademy.org

Khan Academy was started by Salman Khan, an HBS graduate. He basically goes through any subject and teaches (via youtube) about the subject. I have attached a Rent v Buy spreadsheet that he created to help people determine whether or not they should rent a home or buy a home. He has also gone through every GMAT question in the prep book and gives explanations for each of them. It is a useful site for many different needs.

Two Cents
Andrea Thomas

School:
Undergrad – University of Utah (1988)
MBA – BYU (1993)

Work:
Frito-Lay, Hershey, Wal-Mart (currently SVP of Private Label Brands – Oversight of $20 Billion in annual sales)

Career Advice:

Deliver Results
The best advice I can give is “deliver results.” This is the most critical thing you can do to establish yourself as a valuable part of your company and earn trust. A lot of people want flexibility in their careers, and this will not be an issue if the company sees an employee delivering well.

I have three kids, and I was very stressed when I had my first kid that I couldn’t do the things I needed to do for my family. This has not been an issue as my companies have seen me deliver results. They don’t really care how or when I do my job but that it is done effectively.

Determine your Strengths
Also, determine what you are good at. For example, I’ve learned that I am good at recognizing patterns and putting structure around ambiguous situations. This has helped me develop a good career in innovation, marketing, and strategy. It’s not always easy to find out what you’re good at and this can take some time. I learned my particular talent for pattern recognition about half-way through my MBA courses. Because it takes time to find out what you’re really good at, it’s important to push yourself out of your comfort zones and to try several different tasks.

Once you do find out what your strengths are, make sure you’re the best in your company at that particular skill. It’s also important that your company value your talent or it will be hard to build a career around that skill.

Relationships
Remember that the relationships you build in business really matter. These can help or even hinder your career. I worked six years at Frito-Lay and a former colleague of mine from there convinced me to come to Wal-Mart. Make sure you build good relationships throughout your career.

Potential Career Trap for New Grads
Understand that you need to pay your dues. Many young employees have an incorrect idea of what they should be able to do early in their careers. This attitude can come across as arrogant. In reality, we’re judged in business on our actions and not our words. I even have to remind the VPs that report to me of this concept. Effort is not the same as results and plans must be successfully executed in order to be valuable.

MBA
I would always recommend getting an MBA. Undergrad degrees generally focus on specific skills, but an MBA teaches you how to think and look at problems. Also, many companies only hire MBAs. At Pepsi and now at Wal-Mart we don’t even look at undergrads for our brand management positions. Every once-in-a-while you’ll find someone who doesn’t need an MBA (such as Wal-Mart’s current CEO) because they are on a good undergrad career trajectory and have a good CEO mind, but that’s very rare.

Efficiency Tip
A lot of time can be saved and problems avoided by being clear in communication. A group needs to understand upfront what’s expected and what needs to be delivered. Take the time to lay out the task early on and then follow up on how you’re doing to meet the goals of the project. This will improve the final product and reduce the effort needed to produce it.

Stereotypes among fellow LDS members
I’ve found that LDS people are often more judgmental than most other people. When someone doesn’t fit into the normal mold (as I don’t due to my career), members often don’t know what to think of that person. Females or others that don’t fit into the common LDS mold can expect some negative experiences due to this, but remember that the gospel is always true, and it’s our job to get revelation about our own lives and do what’s best for ourselves and our families.