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.