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.