Job Shadow - 2

Amazing. Period.
I suppose that won't suffice, so...

I reached Manny's office at 8:45am. I was given a quick primer on the projects that are currently underway, so that I could make sense of the conversations/meetings/other interactions I would be observing. A quick overview of the work they are doing: They are working on the development of different medical devices, related to cardiac surgery. Each of these devices, if successful, will revolutionize cardiac surgery as it exists now. Most of the work I saw today was related to one particular project. Obviously, I cannot disclose any details of what I was privy to, but that is not too relevant to the main purpose of my visit.
What was really exciting was to see an entrepreneurial team in action, working on a product they truly believe in, excited about the difference they are about to make, led by a leader they absolutely trust and admire. It was mind boggling to observe how Manny could get tasks done on our drive to lunch... tasks that would otherwise take a person a major part of his/her working day.

Today's experience was akin to sitting on the sidelines of the field and watching a great player in action. You could try to learn the sport in many ways, but getting tips from a legend to improve that swing of your bat or to perfect your kick of the football... that is priceless.
In business school, we spend hours learning about motivating teams, managing products and trying to understand what separates the few successful product launches from the myriads that get lost along the way. Today, I observed all that and much more in action.

Job shadow -1

It is 7am on Monday morning and I'm in my hotel room in Minneapolis, getting all set for the job shadow. I drove up here last night from Iowa City, just so to avoid any last minute glitches. The office is just 5 minutes away from the hotel I'm staying in, so everything is going like clockwork so far!
I've got to admit.. I've got a nervous tingle just thinking that the person I will be shadowing today is the founder of a $3 billion medical devices company (and not to mention the other four multi-million dollar businesses he founded!).
Watch this space.. I'll keep you posted.

Back after spring break!

Spring break is over.. :(
Its been just a day since we started school again, and guess what? Life's going an full speed again!!
I've just confirmed the job shadow I will be doing next week. For two days, I will job shadow the CEO of a start-up medical devices firm in Minneapolis. A 'serial' entrepreneur, he has successfully founded five companies (at the last count!) including one of the biggest medical devices firm in the country. I'm really excited to see an accomplished entrepreneur at work! (websites describe him as a 'legend of the industry'!).
I can't wait for next Monday!! :)

The presentation in Kansas

This post has been 1 week in the making!

I started it in my hotel room in Kansas, the night before our presentation to the product team and the underwriters at Zurich NA (Recap - we are consulting for Zurich on product management)
The net connection at the hotel was terribly slow, which was surprising and tremendously frustrating (especially since it was one of those 'premier' ones). I wanted to write a post on that whole fiasco, but I guess I'll save it for another day.

Anyways... the next morning we headed out to the Zurich office all raring to go. And the whole affair was indeed quite a success! I just love it when we cause those 'aha' moments - when the folks listening to us go "aha.. dats so cul!". Well.. thats not exactly the expression used by the underwriters, but I guess you get the point. :)
The presentation was on the feasibility of a certain product launch, and it was very interesting to do all that research and analysis on a product we knew nothing about to start with, but became experts on in a very brief window of time.

And I just got to know yesterday that they will be going ahead with the product launch, based on our recommendations. Aha!!

My consulting gig..

This semester is proving to be way more hectic.. I guess that was to be expected, with my consulting class and Mandarin class over the normal course load.

The consulting class is proving to be a great experience. Our team is consulting for Zurich NA on product management. The way it works is that 4 of us will be consultants to Zurich for an entire semester. The work is what you'd expect from a regular consulting job - the same deadlines, client buy-in, task measurement etc. etc....
Our consulting project is split into three phases, mini-projects if you will. We have the final presentation for our first phase this Friday in Kansas. And most of my time this week will be taken up preparing for this presentation. We're almost done, but there's always seems to be some tweaking left!

We'll be flying out to Kansas on Thursday and should be back Friday night. And the Monday following starts mid-term week... and I've got a couple of internship interviews in-between.. which means that next couple of weeks will be a mad rush..
Time to buckle up for the ride!

Sleepless in Colorado

We reached Colorado on Friday morning for the Net Impact case competition at the Leeds School of Buisness. The case revolved around a business strategy for Sun Microsystems and executives from Sun walked us through the whole "problem" at the reception on Friday evening. It turned out to be quite an interesting couple of days.

The case was given to us by Friday evening and we had to submit our final presentation deck by 8am on Saturday morning. We stayed in a "zero waste hotel", which was so appropriate for a competition on sustainability. The flip side was that our hotel was not quite equipped to handle all these folks trying to log in to their Wi-Fi.. so we were left driving around to find a coffee shop that was not already 'claimed' by another team. Anyways.. lots of coffee later, we had what we believed was a winning presentation; so it was a little disappointing not to win the next morning. :(
But it was effort well spent. A great learning experience, a nice chance to network and a perfect time to visit Colorado!

'Drop Jaw' moment of the trip - folks climbing/rappelling over frozen waterfalls. Amazing!! That one goes on my 'to-do' list for sure. It'll probably be a loong time before I'm able to attempt that one, though..

Tip - if you ever visit Boulder, drive out to the "Oh My God" road. Abandoned mines, dirt roads et al... Definitely worth it.

Life on Skis

Last weekend was skiing time!
Considering that I've never skied before, I was quite pumped up for the whole trip. A couple of hours from Iowa City gets you to the ski slopes. Its not the Alps, of course, but its a great time to spend a weekend (and pretty inexpensive too!)
After falling/rolling/skidding as much as I skied, I think I've got the hang of it now. I'll have to admit - the thrill of the slopes is quite an addictive high.

I'll be going to Colorado this week for a case competition. I'm hoping I get time to go skiing in the Rockies. That should be fun!