When Ann Drake ’84 graduated from Kellogg, she immediately set her sights on a formidable challenge: transforming her family business from a warehousing service to one positioned for the 21st century. Drake’s confident leadership style allowed her to expand the business, forming DSC Logistics, a supply chain company equipped to adapt to the new challenges… Continue reading
Class project leads to 10,000 new jobs in Ecuador
Two years ago, Kellogg introduced a new experiential learning class focused on international business strategy development. I am interested in international development, and I wondered what working on a real consulting project was like, so this class provided an opportunity for me to do both.
One year later, Jasmine Lipford, Andrew Tibbetts, Emi Yokoshima and I found out the implementation of our strategy from class resulted in 10,000 new jobs and the biggest stevia growing project in Ecuador.
My internship experience at McKinsey
As a Summer Associate in McKinsey’s Chicago office this summer, I was staffed on a lean manufacturing study for a global pharmaceutical client. I was specifically responsible for improving the performance of five manufacturing lines at the site.
Kellogg EMBA alumni featured in Crain’s Chicago Business’ 40 under 40
Kourtney Ratliff ’10 was recently recognized as one of Crain’s Chicago Business’ “40 under 40.” Ratliff, a partner with Chicago-based financial firm Loop Capital, was recognized both for her professional achievements and for her willingness to help others. In 2013, Ratliff gave $125,000 to her alma mater, University of Miami, to endow a scholarship that empowers the next generation of… Continue reading
What businesses can learn from the military
War, like business, can be extremely complex and messy. Few people know this better than Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, who spoke during the closing remarks of the first-ever Kellogg On Growth Forum on Nov. 10.
Succeeding in your first quarter at Kellogg
By Tedd Patel ’17 “Show up. Keep up. Step up!” When I think of those words from Colette Feldges during the first day of orientation, I see just how insightful her advice was. Those words went right into my Kellogg journal, and they continue to shape the way I approach being a new student in… Continue reading
Faculty podcast: Growing a company from startup to sale
In this month’s special three-part Insight In Person podcast series, Kellogg School professor Linda Darragh and lecturers Daniel Weinfurter and Joe Dwyer join Enjoy Life Foods founder and CEO Scott Mandell ’01 to look at how he founded a company that was instrumental in creating the allergen-free foods category, how he scaled the business and how Enjoy Life was financed from startup to sale.
What it’s like to be a designer at IDEO
I spent my summer at IDEO and had a wonderful time designing, strategizing, and barreling through boxes of Post-It notes in efforts to rapidly ideate product and business model concepts for my projects. I was one of a few MBAs at IDEO Chicago, and I was surrounded by some of the most talented designers and engineers I’ve had a chance to work with.
Although my title was of a business capacity and I held an expertise in the “viability” portion of the diagram below, I was — at first — a designer.
This designation had two very important implications for the job.
What I’m thankful for
As fall quarter approaches its end, Kellogg students are excited to take a few days off and jump into Thanksgiving break with family, friends, and of course, good food. In the spirit of giving thanks, we asked students to answer the following questions: What are you most thankful for this Thanksgiving season, and more specifically, what are you most thankful for in terms of your Kellogg experience?
Amazon’s Udaan problem | MBA Learnings
We recently looked at why Amazon’s first physical bookstore in Seattle made sense.
The central theme was that different products are suited to different kinds of retail channels. As you might imagine, shipping individual cartons of milk or toilet paper isn’t cost effective as the delivery costs likely outstrip the cost of the good.
Additionally, it is easy for stores to carry excess milk or toilet paper as these goods are cheap. However, when the good becomes niche and expensive (e.g. diamonds), delivery becomes cheaper, and it then makes a ton of sense to centralize warehouses as carrying inventory in store is a very expensive proposition.
So, as retailers get larger, it becomes essential to adopt a “hybrid” or “omni-channel” approach to supplying goods to customers. It is the only way to stay competitive.
When we then consider an emerging market like India, retailers like Amazon are faced with additional problems.
Breakfast with Visa’s SVP, Head of North America Marketing
Last month, 11 Kellogg ladies and I had the opportunity to grab breakfast and chat with Lara Balazs ’00, Visa’s SVP, head of North America marketing. Prior to Visa, Balazs held a variety of marketing and strategy roles at Prophet, Gap and Nike. She was recently named as one of Brand Innovators’ 2015 Top 50 Women in Brand Marketing, alongside the Chief Management Officers of the NBA, Nestle USA and JPMorgan Chase.
‘Dream big and do big things’
In the mid-1980s, Robert Swan found himself surrounded by the white, icy nothingness of Antarctica, leading an expedition with two other men who, by that point, had grown to hate each other. His team, with no radio communications or back-up support, had trudged more than 400 miles already, and it was time to make a decision.
They could either turn back and retreat to base camp or continue on and haul their 360-pound sled an additional 500 miles toward the South Pole.
If he reached the pole, a feat that would take a total of 70 days in subzero temperatures, Swan and his team would complete the longest, unassisted march in history. But if he failed, they would die.