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To kick off the week, Alex Woodcock, Class of 2011, shares his experience in the Semester in Strategic Operations Immersion -
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tings and congrats on your acceptance to the Johnson School!
My name is Alex Woodcock and I’m a first year currently taking the Semester in Strategic Operations immersion. Prior to business school I worked for John Hancock in Boston in Long Term Care insurance and portfolio management. One of the main reasons I came to Johnson was the opportunity to take the SSO immersion. I wanted to make the transition from financial services into consulting and thought I should address one of my shortcomings by focusing on operations. Needless to say it’s been a great learning opportunity and an intense semester. Unlike many of the immersions we have two faculty members and a PhD student who are fully committed to teaching class: Jan Suwinski, who seems to have several hundred years of industry experience and sits on the board of many of the companies we visit, Nagesh Gavirneni, who has been taking a larger and larger role in the class and who previously worked for Schlumberger, and Mike Dixon, who is our service operation specialist and is finishing his PhD at Cornell. Also we typically have students from the ILR school and the engineering school who take classes with us and make up about 15% of our class. It’s great to get their experience and contrast their knowledge with our education from the Johnson school.
However, the highlight of the immersion is the 4 immersion treks we take to various companies. So far this year I’ve been on treks to 11 companies: Kionix (a maker of accelerometers – they go in Nintendo Wii’s and airbags), Kane is Able (a logistics company), Cigna (we saw their claims and call center), Amazon (we went to one of their distribution centers), ABB Instrumentation, Trane (furnaces and air conditioners), Sikorsky (commercial helicopters), Guardian Glass, SentrySafe, General Mills, and Moog. Typically a site visit consists of an introduction, a site tour, and then a Q&A session with the senior leadership. While we learn a lot in the classroom it’s a more valuable experience to see how these companies run their operations and get that real world perspective. The level of access that we gain is amazing – the faculty does a great job getting us access to such a broad range of companies. On Thursday I was in Guardian Glass and got to walk through a float glass manufacturing facility. Watching the process of turning sand into glass was pretty crazy – the furnace is 4 stories tall and never turns off since it takes 30 days to get up to temperature. Then on Friday we went to a General Mills plant in Buffalo. Who knew that Cheerios are processed one O at a time through a gun that shoots them at over 300 mph. Yeah, you get to see a lot of cool things.
Feel free to reach out to me with any questions about the immersion and I look forward to meeting you at Destination Johnson.
-Alex Woodcock
Class of 2011
Today on the blog: First-year student Song Kim shares her experience in the Managerial Finance Immersion (MFI)
I have alwa
ys had a passion for finance and have been intrigued by the role that financial analysts play in the corporate world. Thus, upon graduation from my undergraduate studies, I joined a finance rotational program within a global automotive manufacturing firm. While my time as a financial analyst afforded me an excellent opportunity to see how the company managed its risk through the turbulent economy, I felt that I needed to pursue an MBA in order to further develop and expand my understanding of corporate finance, financial management and financial markets.
One of the many reasons I came to the Johnson School was because of my interest in the Managerial Finance Immersion (MFI). The immersion, which began this semester, has thus far provided the necessary tools I need in order to gain additional financial analysis and decision making skills. We started out the immersion through a week-long course in Corporate Financial Policy where we focused on corporate financing decisions and the interaction between financing and investing decisions. During the 4-day MFI Trek that immediately followed, we visited the offices of Merck, Air Products & Chemicals, American Express, JPMorgan Chase and IBM. Through the trek, we not only had a unique opportunity to meet and listen to the CFO, Treasurer, and other senior financial officer’s personal insights on the firm and the economy but it was also a great time to bond with fellow MFI classmates.
We are now just wrapping up a half-semester course in Financial Statement Analysis. The comprehensive team project for this course was a terrific way to apply what we learned in class to an actual equity valuation of a company. Additionally, the weekly MFI practicum, led by Steve Calk (who has worked in Investment Banking as well as held Investor Relations and M&A advisor roles in various sectors), has also been exceptional as it connects all the finance concepts we learn in our classes through real-life examples and case studies. Many of the sessions and case studies are facilitated by guest speakers. One of my favorite practicum sessions thus far has been with Jon Moeller, CFO of Proctor & Gamble, where we discussed the financial analysis and decisions behind the 2008 Folgers divestiture to Smucker’s.
We will be starting our second half-semester classes in a week – Valuation Principles and Corporate Governance – and I look forward to both these courses!
- Song Kim
MBA Class of 2011
Good morning! Today, Adam Conderman talks about his unique background and his semester in the Entrepreneurship and Private Equity Immersion (EPE).
I work
ed on political campaigns before coming to business school. I really enjoyed all the aspects (and the excitement) around beginning a new organization, raising money, and turning an idea into a living and breathing campaign. I came to Johnson to learn how I could do this in the business world.
I am part of the Entrepreneurship and Private Equity Immersion (EPE). So far, I couldn’t be happier. Our coursework focuses around Prof. David BenDaniel and Prof. Steve Gal’s Business Plan class where you are asked to create either: a) a business plan for a new company or b) a buyout plan for a current company. So far in the class we have discussed how to create a start-up, distressed companies, and leveraged buyouts. Our other coursework is a mix of finance and strategy classes – including “Strategic Alliances” and “Financial Modeling.” I’m taking a brand new course also taught by Prof. Gal titled “Entrepreneurial Marketing.” And I am also taking a class called “Entrepreneurial Executives” with former Johnson alum, Jason Hogg, who recently sold his business to American Express for $300 million.
There is a wealth of opportunity to learn about entrepreneurship at Johnson. Entrepreneurship@Cornell is a campus-wide initiative that in many ways is headquartered in Sage Hall and at the Johnson School. Prof. Zach Shulman is leading a series of 10 lectures this spring focused on how to start a business -- “The Start-up Series” – that breaks down the different components of beginning a business into smaller lectures. Some of the lectures are focused on Idea Generation and Validation or on Intellectual Property issues or on "10 Things That Kill A New Company. It is a practical and hands-on series of classes. Beyond coursework there is: Big Red Ventures (a venture capital fund run by Johnson students), Big Red Incubator (a small business consulting shop run by Johnson students), the Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Club, trips to local start-ups including Kionix, CCTEC mixers (Cornell Center for Technology, Enterprise, and Commercialization), and the Entrepreneurship@Johnson symposium in April. Whatever you are looking for, you can find it at Johnson and at Cornell. I look forward to meeting you at Destination Johnson!
-Adam Conderman
Class of 2011
Today's blog post comes from Trista Miller, a 1st year student in the Investment Banking Immersion!
Having worked only in the non-profit and public sectors in real estate and economic development, I’ve always loved my jobs. However, I have also been very cognizant that I could make a greater impact with a private sector skill set. I came to business school very eager to broaden my horizons, challenge my quantitative abilities, and acquire a skill set that would enable me to make a successful transition to the private sector. I had a strong desire to learn more about the financial services industry, but at the time had very little understanding of the financial markets, corporate finance, and investment banking. I immediately began increasing my existing knowledge and interest in finance exponentially through attending the finance passport sessions (weekly workshops exploring careers in finance and regulatory reform of the financial services industry, as well as providing primers in macroeconomics and valuation) and attending regular meetings of Old Ezra Finance Club (run by 2nd year students who had recently completed summer internships in investment banking). I gained practical knowledge through listening to senior investment bankers walk us through recent deals during our “Week on Wall Street,” while the core curriculum provided me with a solid base in accounting and corporate finance. My classmates who had worked as asset managers, buy-side analysts, and bankers prior to business school were also excellent resources to me. I even had the opportunity to compete in the finals of the National IPO Challenge in Chicago, which was an incredibly fun and educational experience. Before I knew it, the recruiting process for summer internships in banking was in full swing. As I gained a much better understanding of what a career in investment banking might look like, I became inspired by the sheer excitement and magnitude of investment banking’s impact, the endless learning potential afforded by the job, and the exceptional level of intelligence, professionalism, and work ethic displayed by everyone I met. Johnson has an incredibly tight-knit and diverse alumni network on Wall Street, and I was blown away with the willingness of everyone from Associates to Managing Directors to share their candid experiences, insight, and advice with me. I’m now halfway through the Investment Banking immersion, and loving every aspect of it – from the interesting cases we review each week in the practicum (led by Dr. Biloski, a practitioner who brings a wealth of knowledge and experience) to the extremely practical skills I’m gaining in my Valuation and Financial Modeling classes. I also recently became an officer of the Old Ezra Finance Club and am busy putting together next year’s schedule of events for first years. While I’m still the same non-traditional MBA student I was when I came to Johnson six months ago, I’m surprised at the professional and academic strides I’ve made and the confidence I’ve gained during my time here. I’m proud of pursuing a concentration at Johnson that challenged me to the very core and thankful for the incredible amount of encouragement and academic preparation I’ve received from classmates, professors, and alums. I look forward to meeting you at Destination Johnson! -Trista Miller Class of 2011
Interested in HR? Today's post comes from Nicole Johnson, an MBA / MILR (Masters of Industrial and Labor Relations) in the Semester in Strategic Operations Immersion
A year ago I was working as a Recruiting Consultant for a banking company in San Francisco 
and was still trying to figure out where I would be in the fall. I knew that I wanted to continue working in a Human Capital related function but that I needed to expand my business skills and knowledge in order to move into a more strategic management role. I had narrowed things down to just a few MBA programs that had concentrations in this area. What really stood out about The Johnson School were the additional resources that the greater Cornell community had to offer. For me, this made my final decision easy. I had the opportunity to complete a second Masters degree through Cornell’s Industrial Labor Relations School in just one additional semester.
It didn’t take long for me to arrive on campus and realize just how valuable this collaboration among schools really is. Within two weeks of orientation, I found myself at a CAHRS (link below) sponsored networking event, getting to know CHROs and SVPs of HR at several very reputable Fortune 500 companies. By early October, we were full-swing into the HR recruitment season, and while at first it was intimidating to go through interviews before I felt like I had really learned anything new, having two separate career centers to turn to for advice definitely eased the process. Even though I haven’t actually started my coursework at the ILR School (this will happen next fall), I have had the opportunity to get to know many other students in the MILR and dual degree programs, and I am very grateful to be in a place that has such a strong community of people who have similar interests. This sense of cross-collaboration is common among the entire Cornell community. In my current classes (through the SSO practicum), I am partnering with Masters of Engineering students on group projects and learning about service operations from a PhD student in the Hotel School.
In addition to taking advantage of the unparalleled career and academic resources that this place has to offer, I have had the opportunity to take on a leadership role within SHRLOE, a cross-school club focused on Strategic Human Resources, Leadership, and Organizational Effectiveness, competed in the National MBA Human Capital Case Competition sponsored by Deloitte in Nashville, and am currently working with a local non-profit organization on a consulting engagement. Oh yeah, and I’ve managed to find some time to have fun during my short time in Ithaca too!
http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/gradDegreePrograms/ps/degrees/mba.html
http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/CAHRS/
-Nicole Johnson
MBA / MILR Class of 2011
tings and congrats on your acceptance to the Johnson School!
