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July 13, 2008
1/2 MBA, 3/4 Tauber Internship, 1 Great Experience...
This past year (technically 10 months) have been incredible and truly life changing. While that may sound a little exaggerated, my life has truly changed since I started my MBA at Ross back in August of 2007. After much reflection (mostly this past weekend when we Mr. Jim Kellso, the Tauber Industry Advisory Board President and Intel Senior Supply Chain Master, invited our Tauber team to spend the weekend up at his ranch near Prescott, AZ) it has become quite clear that my approach to looking at and solving problems is quite different now that I am half way through the Ross MBA. I am impressed at how often I am looking back into my notes from the core classes to help me address situations here at Intel and really looking at problems with much more of a panoramic lens as opposed to a zoom-in microscope. Although many of the issues we are dealing with here during the summer do require us to delve deep into what is happening, starting out with the entire picture in focus has truly facilitated our work this summer. Using skills acquired in strategy, economics and marketing I have been able to help my team develop a solid hypothesis of how to solve the issue we are working on. Last week, I suggested we try and do some regression modeling to help comprehend some product demand issues as well as revenue and inventory forecasting and thanks to the stats core (and the great notes that Prof. Ahn posted) we were able to move quickly in this space.
Besides all the “fascinating” academic stuff, the friendships I’ve developed have also been life changing. Calling up friends from school to discuss parts of our summer project and getting their input has been a great tool this summer. This summer has opened my eyes to another Michigan advantage which is the amazing alumni network. I truly believe that if it weren’t for the five Michigan MBA alums that we met here at Intel, our project would not have been as successful. The amount of support that we have received from these individuals has allowed us to navigate through the organization with greater ease. Like Marc Conkle (2007 MBA) said, “[he] wants and expects us to succeed, wildly!
Lastly on a personal note, the great response I’ve had from my friends at Ross when I told them that my wife is pregnant has been phenomenal. I would like to thank everyone for their e-mails, calls and messages! We are expecting our first son/daughter in early January. I’m sure my wife will have a great time with all the other spouses in AA who are also pregnant (about 10-12 of her friends ahahaha).
Posted by jolaiz at 01:26 PM | Comments (0)