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)
April 03, 2008
Tauber dinner
Tonight the Tauber Institute hosted a dinner where they recognized the graduating students and gave a small speech about where everyone is heading of to. There was a lot of diversity as to industries and geographies. In the past couple of days I have gotten several e-mails from prospective students asking me about Tauber and whether the program puts to many restrictions as to the fields one can go into after school. After tonight’s dinner I think that the answer to that question is fairly obvious. Several students are going into various consulting firms, while other are going to Exxon Mobile, Cummins, Cisco, among others. I also noticed that several are going back to the same company they did their summer projects with (Boeing I think hired about half of the students they sponsored over the summer). If you are interested in getting the official stats on employment, you can visit the www.tauber.umich.edu website and get the details there.
I also realized today that the summer internship is not the best selling point for Tauber, rather it is the opportunity that we have through the Institute to interact with the IAB (Tauber Industry Advisory Board) members. After our dinner I had a chance to talk with a VP of operation for Boeing and senior managers from Target and AT Kearney among others. Being able to network with these people I think is an opportunity that not many MBAs have on a regular basis. Some of these people know me by name now and we exchange email on somewhat of a regular basis. After the dinner my summer project teammates and I took our project sponsor out for a quick beer to talk about a few details of our project before we fly out to Arizona in a couple of weeks to do our initial project scoping. Our sponsor talked about a meeting he had this week with Intel’s CEO and senior managers and about a new project he will be working on while we are in Arizona this summer. Overall I am extremely satisfied with my decision to join the Tauber Institute and I am sure that my summer experience will be a great one.
Posted by jolaiz at 11:39 PM | Comments (0)
March 12, 2008
The Big Three
Being so close to Detroit, the big three usually refers to Ford, GM and Chrysler. For this blog however, the big three are: MAP, internship and fall classes. The project our team is working on involves determining barriers to growth for remanufactured parts in Europe. We had our scoping meeting with our team sponsor last week and our team is off and running. The five other guys on my team are great and come from very different backgrounds, although 4 out of the 6 have engineering degrees (finance and economics round out the rest of the group). MAP got started with a couple of sessions were we discussed team interactions and communication techniques with our faculty coaches and have put our project and rules on paper now. We will be traveling to Europe in about two weeks where we will then spend two weeks meeting with parts distributors and meeting key stakeholders so that our proposal is as actionable as possible. Before we head to Europe though, we have a ton of work we must get done to prepare for our meetings and have a framework around the problem we are trying to solve. I am very excited about my project and have really enjoyed meeting and working with my new teammates.
Internship…Well, with so much going on with MAP I have not really gotten a chance to get to know my summer project team. Starting May 5, I will be spending the following 14 weeks working on a project for Intel based out of Chandler, Arizona. As part of my Tauber team, I am staffed with a PhD student and a masters of engineering student. I have interacted with them in class and during corporate project presentations and feel good about the way this summer will go. The project is not exactly crystal clear, so Intel is having us fly out to Arizona in early April to meet with them and talk about the details and nature of our project. What we do know is that it will involve their Houston and Costa Rica operations which we will visit and spend a good part of our time in. Being so busy with everything else, I just wish I had a little more time to spend on my internship prep, but like everything here at B-School it is about time management and trade-offs.
Lastly, I have to find out which classes I want to take next fall and bid on them. There are several classes I am interested and some that are requirements that I need to finish. On top of those, as part of Tauber I have to sign up for five credits of engineering courses. Putting all that in a blender and then being able to line up schedules is turning out to be a challenge. The other big variable in this is that the first part of the fall period is recruiting season and that takes a lot of time to really prep and be ready. Wanting to transfer into consulting means that I have a lot of work to do in terms of case practices and really sharpening my interviewing skills. Most MBAs probably had more interviews that those of us in Tauber, so going into the important full-time interviews I feel that I must prepare and practice to catch up with the rest of my class. My plan is to try and network as much as I can during the summer so that come fall I am ready to tackle the next big step in my MBA track, before it’s over :S
Posted by jolaiz at 11:38 AM | Comments (0)
February 20, 2008
Almost done with Winter A
Interviews are over… Exams are almost over… Final write-ups almost over…My MBA experience? Just beginning. This past few weeks were really spent preparing for interviews, researching the Tauber projects and meeting the company execs. In all, I interviewed with six companies: Steelcase, Cummins, Target, BorgWarner, Intel and Boeing. The common thread in all these projects is that they offer me an opportunity to expand the scope of my previous experience because they are either national or global in scale. What also made me pick these projects was that I believe my background and experience will prove valuable for these projects and thus I will be able to make a big positive impact. The interview process itself was surprisingly enjoyable. So much preparation and practice gave me a good sense of confidence, so I entered each interview with the intention of giving recruiters a sense of who I am and what I am about. Most interviews were really just 30 minute chats about my background and why I would like to work for the company over the summer. Now all I have to do is wait for about two weeks while Tauber faculty run the algorithm that will match our preference with the company’s interest. Supposedly, once I return from spring break I will know where I will work this summer.
On a different note, core classes are basically done, except for two more requirements that I need to take before graduation. It is really up to me now as to what classes I take. Last week, the faculty presented the classes that each department will offer in the coming semesters. I also looked at my Tauber requirements and mapped out the rest of my MBA. I have included in my plan some classes I never expected to be interested in, like some marketing and accounting courses. I think that these classes, along with other finance course, will provide me with a new dimension to analyze operation problems.
Posted by jolaiz at 01:47 AM | Comments (0)
February 04, 2008
Tauber interview prep
Getting Ready for Interviews
This week marks the start of the official Tauber Institute interviews for summer projects. After sitting through about 20 presentations over the past several weeks, all close lists are in and it is time to interview. Out of the 20 projects, I was able to find 6 that really interest me. I plan to interview with Cummins, Intel, Target, Steelcase, BorgWarner and Boeing. I was fortunate enough to be placed on several close lists, so I had plenty of points to bid for interview slots for the companies that did not place me on their closed lists. It is very important to understand that getting a spot on the close list does not really give you any advantage over those that bid for the interview, so I have spent some time preparing hard for the interviews. One of the things that I really like about Ross is how all the second-year MBAs are willing to lend a hand and help us prepare. It really helps when someone who has just gone through what we are going through takes the time to share their insight and experiences. I am confident that this level of dedication from the second-years is one of the reasons Ross is a top school. Great professors obviously help as well ahahahahah.
Besides recruiting stuff, classes are quickly coming to the end of the Winter A term. I have now begun to appreciate all the hard work the faculty puts in to “linking” classes. It’s funny how topics from all classes I am taking this period somehow are building on each other and I am starting to feel as though my way of thinking about business situations is changing. I am really excited about getting my MAP project started and putting some of this new “knowledge” to work, but before I can do that I need to survive my six interviews which are priority #1 right now.
Posted by jolaiz at 12:21 AM | Comments (0)
January 28, 2008
MAP Time!
Belgium & U.K. here we come...
It is hard to describe the tension in the air Wednesday around 5:00 PM when the MAP projects were seconds away from being announced. It was definitely an unusual site walking through the lobby that afternoon and seeing the room completely packed and at the same time completely quiet. Everyone had their eyes glued on their laptop screens (yes, everyone had their own laptops out) pressing the refresh button on their browser waiting for the teams to be published. Around 5:04, while waiting for the general HLBSA meeting to start somebody yelled, “They’re published”…
In the aftermath of what became an exciting couple of minutes, everyone was on iMpact (the internal B-School intranet) looking up their team members and reading over the details of the assigned project.
The whole MAP-picking process is a really interesting one. First, you receive an e-mail from the school saying that all the projects are posted. I saw the e-mail over Christmas and spent a couple of hours going over the general list and trying to see which projects really interested me. The list was over 100 unique projects, ranging in industries, functional areas and geographies. By January, everyone had to narrow down their list to 10 project (including at least 3 domestic). Ranked in order or preference, you submitted your list through the MAP website and held your breath for one week. I ranked a project in South Africa for a Non-profit arm of Microsoft, which I lament to say I did not get. The exact workings of the algorithm that the MAP office uses is unclear to me because a friend of mine from Venezuela listed the same top 5 projects as me (both of us ranking Microsoft’s South African project #1) and he got it and I didn’t. I got my #2 choice!!!!!! Which I have to admit is really just as good and interesting. Our team will help develop a 5-year market growth plan for genuine Cummins factory-remanufactured components and engines to serve Cummins-powered customers in the European Union. As part of our project the team will travel to Belgium, the U.K. and possibly other areas in Europe to meet with distributors and Cummins marketing teams. I am sure we will have a great time and probably learn stuff that is almost impossible to teach in a classroom. The MAP project was a big deciding factor for me to come to Ann Arbor, so I am expecting a lot from this experience and from the looks of it (at least so far) there is no sign that I will be disappointed!
I’ll also take a quick second to wish all my fellow classmates good luck on their projects, especially the guys going to South Africa! hahahah
Posted by jolaiz at 01:19 AM | Comments (0)
January 10, 2008
Tauber Project Presentations
It is hard to believe that my first MBA semester is in the books! Time definitely went by a lot quicker than what I expected it to, but I feel like I covered so much ground that it feels like a long time as well. In any case, FALL 2007 done and it is now time to start with what I’ve been told is a crazy and stressful time for MBA students. For this Fall A term I have signed up for Accounting (core), Topics in Operations (Tauber core), Lean Manufacturing (at the College of Engineering) and Finance 615 (Valuations). On top of this I have to prepare for presentations from the companies that are sponsoring Tauber projects. This is where my experience as a Tauber student differs from the rest of my fellow MBAs. Through Tabuer companies sponsor projects that have a business and engineering topic that they would like a team of 2-4 students to look at. Companies then come to campus and make presentations about their company (very similar to regular corporate presentations) and about the specifics issues surrounding the project they are sponsoring. Today Alcoa, the first company to present, gave us an idea of the types of problems they are having internally and laid out what they expect from the Engineering/Business team. These presentations are also a great networking event where we get to talk to company executives and meet some of the actual people who will be “championing” the projects. It is very important that we make a good impression with these people so that we are placed on their “closed list”, where they invite you to interview with them for the project. Once you have seen all the project presentations (and hopefully secured some closed-list spots on projects you really like) you have to interview with the companies so that they get a chance to select the candidates they like the most for their projects. There are two ways you can secure interview spots: the first is to get closed-listed based on your interaction with recruiters, and secondly you can bid for open slots. The second option is exactly the same as for the regular MBA recruiting process except that we only bid on a limited number of projects. Once you have interviewed for about 4-5 projects (one company can have several projects) you rank your top three and companies rank the top candidates they want for each project. All the information is then fed into a computer and you are assigned to a project. The algorithm is supposed to try to match you with the project you like the most and tries to give companies the candidates they have ranked highest.
Having read most of the project descriptions and having listened to the first presentation, I can definitely say that the projects will be very challenging. Also, I have no doubt that my summer experience will be a great one thanks to Ross and the Tauber Institute.
Posted by jolaiz at 01:44 AM | Comments (0)
December 08, 2007
Case interviews...
The Case Competitions
Hello everyone! Recruiting activities are definitely under way here at Ross and everyone seems to be scrambling, or almost everyone. Since I am part of the Tauber Institute, we have a little different experience when it comes to our summer internship. Once admitted to the program, we are guaranteed a spot on one of about 20 projects which various companies sponsor. In early January, these companies will come to Michigan to present each of their projects, which we will then rank. Once we have seen all the projects and decided which ones we like, we select 5 to interview with. According to our program managers, about 75%-80% of students get their 1-2 choices. Although typically no consulting firms sponsor summer projects (for several reasons… If you’re interested in knowing more about this e-mail me) most projects are consulting type in scope and nature.
In getting ready for the interview process I have started to practice some case interviews with classmates from the Consulting Club. Also, I have participated in a few case competitions, being a finalist in the last one. Doing these cases has actually improved my overall learning experience since I try to apply as many concepts seen in class to these “real” scenarios. After working on my last case competition, I realized that a lot of the concepts in our case followed the finance core class and I feel that the class concepts are a lot clearer since I was able to put them in practice on a real valuation. The other benefit that I found in practicing the case interview with colleagues is how much better you get to know them and how effective their feedback can be (both positive and negative). I believe that I am definitely getting better and so much practice has started to change the way I look at problems. Before coming to Ross, I suppose I was using some sort of “framework” to solve my problems, but it was no where near as focused and effective as it is today. I truly believe that I am starting to look at most problems with a different lens, even family issues (like picking where to go for Christmas, with the in-laws or with my family). I plan to continue with the case interviews and practice interviews so that come next year I am prepared for full-time interviewing.
This sort of leads me to my next point about teams and competitions. I can not over-emphasize how important diversity is in these teams. Having people with different backgrounds makes the team a whole lot stronger, although sometimes a little harder to work with since they are “different” from you and look at solutions differently. Now, imagine what would happen if you formed a team of 400 people, all with unique and interesting backgrounds. What you get is our MBA class.
Posted by jolaiz at 10:53 PM | Comments (0)
November 28, 2007
Broken nose
Hello All,
I have to admit, these past two weeks have been the toughest so far here at Ross. Since my last post, my soccer team and I won the intramural tournament, which meant having to beat undergraduate students in the final (not an easy task for a bunch of twenty-somethings). Given the success our team had, someone suggested we play indoor soccer. I had played once or twice before, and remember it being somewhat the same. Boy… was I in for a surprise. The following Friday night we face off against a team of older (40-something) guys who are really in shape and are looking to beat us bad. About 5 minutes into the second period, a guy charges at me, I square up to cover the net and we collide. As we fall, I catch an elbow right in the face and end up breaking my nose.
Luckily, my wife had gone with me to watch the game and she drove me to the emergency room. Saturday and Sunday were pretty bad. My face was really swollen and both my eyes were purple. The verdict at the emergency room was that I would need surgery to reset my nose, but that would not happen for a week since my nose was too swollen. Monday morning, broken nose and black eyes, I present with my marketing team our project for the semester. Needless to say the first question asked was not about our presentation but about my swollen, stuffy, purple face. Any way, our presentation actually went very well. This actually finally brings me to my point and the “takeaway” for this post. It amazed me how many calls, e-mails and text messages I got from my classmates offering help and checking up to see how I was feeling. This close (almost family-like) network of people here at Ross is truly amazing. I learned a lot about the kind of people that come to Ross (and missed out on a little marketing which I’ll make up for later) and what you can expect to receive from a group of people you have only known for about 8 weeks.
Posted by jolaiz at 01:34 AM | Comments (0)
October 29, 2007
The Tauber discussion…
I went to my first hockey game a few nights ago with a couple of friends from Venezuela and Peru. After the game we went out to get a few drinks and ended up talking about, what else, school and career paths. Even during our “break-time” we are never truly on break. The discussion basically centered around how easy (or hard) it is to switch career paths. Although we all agreed that some skills, like communication and leadership skills, transfer over into any industry the majority of the “technical” ones don’t. The conversation that went on for a couple of beers (micro brewed beers, which I am NOT a fan of, but that’s for another blog) did not really get to me because up until today, I had no intention of changing paths drastically.
Now that “Fall B” has started the lens through which I look at my MBA experience has fogged up a bit, and it’s actually a good thing! Thanks to Professor Andy Gershoff and his brief introduction to Marketing Management, I have now begun to question whether the Tauber Institute for Global Operations and following an “operations” focus is really what I want to do. Coming from an engineering background and working in supply chain management for six years led me to think that I wanted to continue in that area because I truly enjoyed what I was doing. Yet part of the reason I came to B-School was to learn about new opportunities and either validate or dismiss preconceived notions I had of what certain career paths were like. My idea of marketing, and what someone who works in marketing does was very different from what was introduced today. Thanks to this introduction, marketing is now a path that I will look into with more detail. This doesn’t mean that I’m done with Tauber and my OMS-605 (Operations Management class for Tauber students) but it does mean that there are new options that didn’t exist before, at least for me.
I guess the most appealing opportunity that Ross offers me is that I don’t know what all the opportunities will be (I hope that makes some sense). I am sure that as I go through my two years here, my ideas of what I want and what I thought I was good at will probably change and morph into something different and thanks to a great Office of Career Development I am confident that I will be able to work in a place where I will continue to develop my new-found passion (whatever that may be).
Posted by jolaiz at 01:40 PM | Comments (0)
October 20, 2007
Introduction from Jaime
It is a little hard to start this blog because I want to introduce myself so that you can get a feel for where my blog is coming from, but at the same time I don’t want to bore you with my entire life story. Feel free to e-mail me and let me know if you are interested in learning anything more about me.
So, here we go…
I am Jaime Olaiz, a 29 year old married man from Nogales, Mexico. For the past six years I had been running an international third party logistics firm along the Mexico/US border. Before that I studied at ITESM, in Monterrey, Mexico where I earned my Mechanical and Industrial Engineering degree. A few months after my graduation I met my wife Magui, now 26, at a festival in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico called “La Pamplonada” or the Mexican version of the running of the bulls in Spain (but without the huge bulls; instead we have small cows). I come from a “typical” Mexican family, with one older sister, two younger brothers and a younger sister.
So, that’s my background. Now, the reason you are probably reading this is because you are interested in learning a little more about the Ross School of Business and my experience at Michigan. I’ve been here for a couple of months and I am still very impressed with all my classmates. First, just learning about their backgrounds and the amazing things they have done has been a great. Everyone is really open and willing to talk about their experiences and they are interested in learning about you too.
One thing that was definitely new for me was the grading scale here. It doesn’t really matter what your score is on a given assignment or test, but rather how you compared to your classmates. The “forced curve” basically means that you have to do better than the mean in order to score an “excellent” Now, the funny thing is that you would imagine that this would create a lot of competition between students (which it does), but people are actually really helpful when it comes to preparing for finals. I guess the best way of describing the atmosphere here is a “competitive collaboration” where everyone is trying very hard to achieve excellence, but at the same time willing to lend a helping hand to make sure that anyone who needs help gets it.
I hope that you stop by again soon.
Until next time…
Posted by kkellerz at 08:56 PM | Comments (0)