Global Management Alumni
Jeff Schiebe
Vice President
OnePIN, Inc.
Westboro, MA Babson MBA Program: Evening MBA Pre-MBA Work Experience: 5 years Pre-MBA Education: B.S. Electrical Engineering, University of Minnesota Career Development
Upon graduation from Minnesota I was accepted into an exchange program for technical cooperation and spent an extended period in the UK. Little did I know how much influence that would later have on my decisions regarding my career. Upon my return I entered the engineering master’s degree program at the University of Minnesota but soon felt the need to get out working in industry in order to better understand which area I wanted to focus on to advance my career. I moved to the Boston area to pursue an engineering career in the computer industry. From the beginning I always had an interest in different disciplines and functional areas. At one company I worked with visiting Japanese engineers and realized the need for more comprehensive product requirements. I then moved into product planning roles and eventually product marketing, where I realized the need to more formally understand the disciplines of finance, marketing, and operations. Growing up in family business also gave me an early exposure into the entrepreneurial area. I then enrolled in the evening MBA program at Babson. Work Life
My current role at OnePIN, a web-based contact management service, has been business development—including marketing, sales and strategic development. OnePIN is a start-up company with a very innovative solution applicable to virtually any market. But being a relatively unknown company my role is to help us ‘cross the chasm’ and establish a market presence in one or two markets to establish references, ensure a product/market fit, and better leverage our resources. This requires multiple disciplines including focus, ability to adapt quickly to the market requirements, and to prioritize many varying tasks. In a given day I often have to think about a strategic market decision, present to a customer, act on a very tactical sales situation, and document a new product feature. Juggling would aptly describe this day. Most of my career I have been building sales and marketing organizations for high growth technology companies. My technical background coupled with the foundational knowledge from the Babson MBA enabled me to build and develop the processes that are so important in the growth of entrepreneurial companies. By far the most important task is to focus the company’s resources to maximize the potential success in the market and leverage each sales opportunity to its maximum. Balancing life outside of the fast pace of high tech growth is also important. I do this in two areas—teaching and music performance. I am a Lead Faculty member for the University of Phoenix, teaching marketing, global business strategy and run new faculty workshops. To relax away from the fast pace of the business world I perform regularly throughout New England with a 20 piece jazz band and my own brass quartet. Lessons from Babson
The most important lessons I learned from Babson fall into two areas. The first area was early on during the Babson experience and included the need to develop a good understanding of finance and its importance as a fundamental part of running any business. The need to develop critical thinking habits and to learn to challenge the positions thrown at us during the case discussions was important as it helped me to maintain focus with so many business alternatives available today. And second, the most important lesson I learned was the development of an international perspective. This offered the exposure to new ideas, new cultures, and provided both functional and personal perspectives well beyond my own background. Interestingly, lessons from Babson did not stop with graduation but continued with my frequent interaction over the years. The MCFE programs, Corporate Mentoring, the Coaching programs, and other events all continue to demonstrate the importance of developing a strong network of business contacts for a more successful career development. Recommended Elective Courses
Global Global Marketing Strategy—a must for tomorrow’s business success
Global Management Program—consulting experience can be invaluable
Entrepreneurial Entrepreneurship—One of my favorite courses; the opportunity to develop an entire business plan
The Maverick Seminar—I wish this was available when I attended. Take any chance to learn from a faculty practitioner.
Advice
While at Babson - Any elective where you can gain practical experience and knowledge from the faculty. You want real world experience versus lecture comments.
- Be interested and engaged
- Think ‘out of the box’
Starting Out - Take risks, travel
- Stay connected with faculty and advisors
- Be selective about organizations you join
- Always look for the sound business model
Ongoing - Market research is always important
- Stay connected with alumni
- Participate at Babson events (particularly if living in Boston area)
- Change is ok and often good
John Cunningham
Lead Consultant
Market Edge
Wilmington, DE & Boston, MA Babson MBA Program: Two-Year Pre-MBA Work Experience: 12 years Pre-MBA Education: B.S. Skidmore College | |
Career Development
After college an interest in solving a variety of problems and in developing general business experience drew me into a wide range of positions including resort marketing, special events, general management, and technology consulting. Ultimately this led me to a position as an enterprise project leader, managing special strategic initiatives for a consumer products company. While this ‘internal consultant’ position was an excellent fit for me, an increasing responsibility for financial analysis and results of initiatives instilled a desire to complete the gaps of my business knowledge.
Additionally, feeling the limitations of working almost exclusively in the Eastern U.S., I had a strong desire to understand global business, and to work in an international, global environment. In reviewing business school choices, Babson became my clear preference because of two unique characteristics – the strong integrated curriculum of the full-time program, and the first-class global programs for internships, classes, and exchange programs offered that are part of the Glavin Center.
After graduation I joined Market Edge as a Lead Consultant. Market Edge is a firm focused on providing consulting and management development services in strategy, marketing, sales, and innovation. In that capacity, I have led diverse projects for clients around the world ranging from marketing strategy workshops to market simulation and modeling development.
Work Life
Work as a global consultant involves embracing a number of compromises and tradeoffs, but can also be a fantastic opportunity for someone suited to it. As a lead consultant with P&L responsibility over client engagements, I have to constantly ensure that value is being delivered to clients and that our fees represent an extremely high return-on-investment to clients. But in many ways, I find this career to be an entrepreneurial management opportunity, where each consultant is responsible for their own business growth, and for all decisions that impact the satisfaction and return business of the client. Working for a smaller consulting group provides fantastic visibility to senior client managers, along with corresponding responsibility and accountability.
My additional role as the firm’s IT Director increases what is already a high level involvement in setting internal firm direction and strategy for all consultants. Because of the amount of time we spend abroad or working remotely, technology is a critical success factor for our business, and we absolutely depend on broadband Internet connections, ASP hosted services, and other telecommunications services such as globally accessible conference bridges.
Logistically, smaller firms often offer more flexibility in situations for staff. Working like an extended family, our consultants are able to tailor individual needs and preferences to create environments that fulfill both client and personal needs. I generally spend between one and three weeks per month at client sites around the world, with the remaining time balanced between a home office and U.S. company offices in Delaware. Over the last three years, I have spent significant amounts of time working in over 20 countries around the world, including Asia, Europe, Latin America, as well as the U.S. and Canada. Demands to deliver high quality and adapt to client needs can mean having to sacrifice many weekends and holidays, but this is balanced by an ability to determine one's own schedule and take time for other priorities when that is possible.
Lessons from Babson
Both during and after the full-time program, I was privileged to work on several case-writing and research projects with Babson faculty. Aside from internship projects, my involvement in research included interviewing technology executives for a case-writing project, and developing a web-based survey database so that corporate participants could provide submissions remotely. The experience in case-writing and research has always been helpful to me in my work. In certain situations we develop our own specific targeted cases for clients. In many others, the experiences serve to underline my credibility and capability in strategic environments.
While at Babson, I also took advantage of the international programs that attracted me in the first place. In my case this included a Global Management Program (GMP) internship, writing a case study for DSM, a global industrial firm based in the Netherlands under the supervision of Jean-Pierre Jeannet. Additionally, a class abroad studying the economic effects of the Euro currency transition gave students the opportunity to discuss impact and viewpoint with European executives in their offices and headquarters.
Exposure to working in international environments - having direct experience with cultural diversity in business and decision making - was a perfect background to the work that I now do around the globe. A demonstrated ability to work across cultures and move into new environments without apprehension became a notable advantage and distinction in first discussions with my current employer.
Additionally, the general support and value offered by faculty cannot be underestimated. During the program, discussions after classes or over coffee with faculty members would clarify, multiply, or expand the lessons learned during class, and often served to truly cement core ideas behind strategy that I still use daily.
As graduation approached, these faculty members were also extremely helpful in my personal networking, and went out of their way to help introduce me to people who might be valuable contacts for my career, and to help me in my ongoing search. I cannot say enough about how dedicated and helpful the faculty will be for students who are dedicated and put forth the effort to build the relationship.
Recommended Elective Courses
Global Marketing: This class is an excellent choice for students interested in Marketing Strategy in general, as well as in global business. The concepts and cases provide a foundation for understanding the unique challenges and opportunities that exist in a global environment. As with some of the other hallmark classes at Babson, the authoritative text used in the class was written by Babson faculty like Jean-Pierre Jeannet and David Hennessy. These texts are often updated for new editions and the class has the opportunity to work through new material as it is being developed by the authors. This lends itself to class work that is leading edge, and highly tailored to the subject.
Advanced Strategy: For students in the full-time program who have been ‘drinking from the firehose’, it can be difficult to put all the pieces together after the first year. This course helps to build on the foundation developed in the first year, and tie together many elements. By giving students an opportunity to practice applying strategic thinking through cases and then add to the base of tools developed in the first year, it provides an opportunity to become comfortable with strategic thinking and analysis.
Management Planning & Control: This course is very useful to students headed in a range of directions. Many of the measures and controls will naturally be very valuable to general management positions. But it is also an excellent course for students interested in consulting, as it provides an assortment of well known and lesser known frameworks frequently used to help companies create and measure value.
Advice
- Understand your goals. If you are unclear about exactly where you want to be upon graduation, establish a plan to resolve those questions. Regardless of whether you want to work in a large firm, small firm, or become an entrepreneur, clarity of goals will be fundamental to your spending your search time well, and to being credible when you approach potential employers or networking contacts.
- Explore all the possibilities that might interest you. The job profiles and firms listed in MBA career handbooks are not the only career paths that exist. Working in a smaller consulting firm has delivered huge benefits for me, yet it is a road less traveled. Look for alumni with either past experience or current positions that might be related to what interests you, and develop relationships with them.
- Leverage the faculty. Build your relationships with faculty early and often. Whether concepts are unclear or very interesting, find opportunities to discuss topics and develop your understanding of the material. Most faculty are extremely willing to spend time with students who are interested in and thinking about the material.
- Utilize the Glavin Center international programs. The GMP programs are an especially fantastic asset, and the Babson international network of alumni and non-alumni contacts that make this possible are invaluable.
- Consider independent study or research projects. At any given time, many faculty have research projects and are often looking for student research assistants. This experience can include field work, interviewing executives, or processing and analyzing existing data. This experiences is inherently valuable but also will give you great credibility in your business career in the future.
