Friday, February 23, 2008
Karl Schroeder, President of Safeway Northern California came to our class today and spoke to us about what he thinks are the most important ingredients for succeeding in business.
Having seen him speak the previous week at the WAFC Donor Luncheon I knew it would be a great talk. The first thing that struck me was that before class as everyone was sitting around chatting he came around and introduced himself to each person individually. He had obviously done his homework on all of us and knew our names, which company we were from, and asked about who we knew in common or told quick stories about people he knew in our companies. Those of us whom he had met at the luncheon he remembered meeting and didn't re-introduce himself. In our discussions later, the class was very impressed with this.
The best thing about Karl's speaking style is that he comes across as very humble and genuine. He talks openly about the fact that before going through the FIM program he had only attained an associates degree. He said that while he thinks this has sometimes been a disadvantage, he's worked hard not to let it hold him back.
After his talk we all went to lunch at the University Club where he answered questions all through lunch about his experiences. He gave us a lot of very personal insights not only about business, but about his own climb up the corporate ladder. This was a great end to a tough week and the kind of experience I really couldn't get anywhere else.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Day 21 - 22
This has really been a crazy week!
Wednesday, February 21, 2008
We started off with an exam in Professor Hill's class which I think I did very well on. We then ran over to the Experiential Learning Center where we "performed" our Meyers-Briggs team presentation on types. My team showed the interaction between opposite "temperaments," how these temperaments lead us in opposite directions and make us think completely differently, and how we can bridge some of these gaps simply by being aware of where the other person is coming from in terms of "type." Our presentation was funny and creative, but pretty tame in comparison to some. Since no one knew what the other teams were doing we ended up with three different groups performing versions of "The Dating Game" from back in the 70's, but it worked out since they all had some very different takes on it and taught us different things about MBTI. Another group did a "Wizard of Oz" takeoff which was clever, but I think the best idea was from the group that represented each of their personalities as a wine and performed as a group of tourists going to a wine tasting at a vineyard.
Wednesday wrapped up for me with group meetings until 9pm for the Nielsen Case Study and FIMSIM. I then worked on writing up a draft of Nielsen for one of my teams and our Accounting Controls Presentation Proposal for another team until about 12:30 am.
Thursday, February 22, 2008
We had our second accounting quiz, again in group mode. I worked with Sue Yarkosky and Rebecca Cupp (Director of Pharmacy for Ralph's) who both have a pretty good handle on what we're doing.
I then turned in our Controls Presentation Proposal to Professor Davila only to find out that another group had selected something similar and turned it in the day before. Since there was too much overlap we're back to the drawing board. That was really really frustrating given the time crunch I've been feeling this week. This is probably the first time in my life I've felt like I didn't have enough hours in the day to do my job 100% no matter how hard I work. I really think this is an intentional part of the program - to load us down with work to the point that you have to make choices and sacrifices, decide what is the most important, and focus on that. I have a hard time with this because I always want to finish everything completely - I don't like "good enough." But I'm learning.
In Professor Arnold's class Gary Hunt and Tom Terrell from Food 4 Less presented their company to us. They did a very nice job and I found it interesting since I've not seen one of their stores yet. It seems to be similar to a Winco with perhaps a bit more focus on service. They also set the bar pretty high with gift bags (similar to our green polywoven Haggen bags) filled with wine, semi-gourmet chocolate, and other snacks. I think Sue and I are going to have to place a call Merchandising! We present Haggen to the class on April 7.
The rest of Thursday was a quick meeting with my Controls group to come up with a new topic and figure out how to get it done by tomorrow. Since some of us had other meetings or had already left to commute home I picked a topic, sold the group on it and suggested we do research independently. We'd then coordinate over the phone and email this evening.
As soon as I got home I dove right into this and found I'd really lucked out on the topic choice (using voice recognition systems in a warehouse setting). There was a massive amount of information on the subject and I easily found everything I needed. I was able to complete the preliminary research and proposal in about three hours and send it out to my group. I was very happy to have this done given the looming deadline, but I think in a larger sense this was a terrible failure. If, as we've learned from Professor Hill, Management is accomplishing organizational goals through other people, then by taking all the work on myself I totally failed to manage my group. I think this is a good lesson learned and probably exactly what the program is designed to teach me.
I took a break after that to go to the Thursday night BBQ - Tritip tonight. Sitting around and talking with my classmates inside (it's been raining here all week) I noticed how exhausted everyone looked. It was low key and I was back to my apartment to try to get some sleep before 9pm.
Wednesday, February 21, 2008
We started off with an exam in Professor Hill's class which I think I did very well on. We then ran over to the Experiential Learning Center where we "performed" our Meyers-Briggs team presentation on types. My team showed the interaction between opposite "temperaments," how these temperaments lead us in opposite directions and make us think completely differently, and how we can bridge some of these gaps simply by being aware of where the other person is coming from in terms of "type." Our presentation was funny and creative, but pretty tame in comparison to some. Since no one knew what the other teams were doing we ended up with three different groups performing versions of "The Dating Game" from back in the 70's, but it worked out since they all had some very different takes on it and taught us different things about MBTI. Another group did a "Wizard of Oz" takeoff which was clever, but I think the best idea was from the group that represented each of their personalities as a wine and performed as a group of tourists going to a wine tasting at a vineyard.
Wednesday wrapped up for me with group meetings until 9pm for the Nielsen Case Study and FIMSIM. I then worked on writing up a draft of Nielsen for one of my teams and our Accounting Controls Presentation Proposal for another team until about 12:30 am.
Thursday, February 22, 2008
We had our second accounting quiz, again in group mode. I worked with Sue Yarkosky and Rebecca Cupp (Director of Pharmacy for Ralph's) who both have a pretty good handle on what we're doing.
I then turned in our Controls Presentation Proposal to Professor Davila only to find out that another group had selected something similar and turned it in the day before. Since there was too much overlap we're back to the drawing board. That was really really frustrating given the time crunch I've been feeling this week. This is probably the first time in my life I've felt like I didn't have enough hours in the day to do my job 100% no matter how hard I work. I really think this is an intentional part of the program - to load us down with work to the point that you have to make choices and sacrifices, decide what is the most important, and focus on that. I have a hard time with this because I always want to finish everything completely - I don't like "good enough." But I'm learning.
In Professor Arnold's class Gary Hunt and Tom Terrell from Food 4 Less presented their company to us. They did a very nice job and I found it interesting since I've not seen one of their stores yet. It seems to be similar to a Winco with perhaps a bit more focus on service. They also set the bar pretty high with gift bags (similar to our green polywoven Haggen bags) filled with wine, semi-gourmet chocolate, and other snacks. I think Sue and I are going to have to place a call Merchandising! We present Haggen to the class on April 7.
The rest of Thursday was a quick meeting with my Controls group to come up with a new topic and figure out how to get it done by tomorrow. Since some of us had other meetings or had already left to commute home I picked a topic, sold the group on it and suggested we do research independently. We'd then coordinate over the phone and email this evening.
As soon as I got home I dove right into this and found I'd really lucked out on the topic choice (using voice recognition systems in a warehouse setting). There was a massive amount of information on the subject and I easily found everything I needed. I was able to complete the preliminary research and proposal in about three hours and send it out to my group. I was very happy to have this done given the looming deadline, but I think in a larger sense this was a terrible failure. If, as we've learned from Professor Hill, Management is accomplishing organizational goals through other people, then by taking all the work on myself I totally failed to manage my group. I think this is a good lesson learned and probably exactly what the program is designed to teach me.
I took a break after that to go to the Thursday night BBQ - Tritip tonight. Sitting around and talking with my classmates inside (it's been raining here all week) I noticed how exhausted everyone looked. It was low key and I was back to my apartment to try to get some sleep before 9pm.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Day 19
Monday, February 19, 2008
I flew back to Los Angeles Monday afternoon, but as our plane was getting pushed out of the gate by the "tug" the ground crew jack-knifed it and could have damaged the landing gear. We taxied back to the gate, inspections ensued, but everything turned out OK. Unfortunately we were two hours late by the time we took off so I arrived at LAX about 11pm. One of my fellow students picked me up and by 11:30 I was back "home" working on accounting homework. Since I didn't take anything with me on my trip (except for a couple books to read) I have some catching up to do this week. I was able to knock out the accounting work by 12:30 am and hit the hay. I decided to sleep in until 5:30 tomorrow!
Tuesday, February 20, 2008
Classes this morning included exam review on Management and Organizational Behavior with Professor Hill followed by accounting with Professor Davila which included a quiz. I then met with two of my groups on campus.
I drove the carpool today, so I was able to stop at Home Depot on the way home to pick up a toilet seat to be used as a prop in our team Meyers-Briggs presentation tomorrow. We're encouraged to use a lot of creativity in our presentations and do things that will get our audience's attention. I don't think that will be a problem.
After a quick dinner I've spent about five hours working on FIMSIM, our Nielsen Case Study (in which my team is taking the part of Kraft trying to convince a Retailer to give us an endcap for Starbucks Coffee at Christmas), and our Accounting Controls presentation proposal. A little more exam review and I hope to be sleeping by midnight. As I said, I'm doing a little catching up from the weekend, but it's well worth it for the time I was able to spend with my family.
I flew back to Los Angeles Monday afternoon, but as our plane was getting pushed out of the gate by the "tug" the ground crew jack-knifed it and could have damaged the landing gear. We taxied back to the gate, inspections ensued, but everything turned out OK. Unfortunately we were two hours late by the time we took off so I arrived at LAX about 11pm. One of my fellow students picked me up and by 11:30 I was back "home" working on accounting homework. Since I didn't take anything with me on my trip (except for a couple books to read) I have some catching up to do this week. I was able to knock out the accounting work by 12:30 am and hit the hay. I decided to sleep in until 5:30 tomorrow!
Tuesday, February 20, 2008
Classes this morning included exam review on Management and Organizational Behavior with Professor Hill followed by accounting with Professor Davila which included a quiz. I then met with two of my groups on campus.
I drove the carpool today, so I was able to stop at Home Depot on the way home to pick up a toilet seat to be used as a prop in our team Meyers-Briggs presentation tomorrow. We're encouraged to use a lot of creativity in our presentations and do things that will get our audience's attention. I don't think that will be a problem.
After a quick dinner I've spent about five hours working on FIMSIM, our Nielsen Case Study (in which my team is taking the part of Kraft trying to convince a Retailer to give us an endcap for Starbucks Coffee at Christmas), and our Accounting Controls presentation proposal. A little more exam review and I hope to be sleeping by midnight. As I said, I'm doing a little catching up from the weekend, but it's well worth it for the time I was able to spend with my family.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Day 18
Thursday, February 14, 2008
After classes today I flew home to visit my family for the weekend. It's been exactly one month since I've seen Wendy and Logan and a lot has changed. Logan looks all grown up (at 15 and a half months) and now says a bunch of words including "backpack" and "goose egg" and makes all the farm animal noises.
I don't think he knew what to think when I got off the plane. He was a little nervous to go to me at first, but he was obviously happy I was there, with a big grin on his face. I knew I'd be a little emotional being back and really seeing all the things I've missed, even though I've been keeping a list of all the new things Logan learns to do.
I'm very happy to be able come home for the weekend and I know it's going to be hard to leave on Monday.
After classes today I flew home to visit my family for the weekend. It's been exactly one month since I've seen Wendy and Logan and a lot has changed. Logan looks all grown up (at 15 and a half months) and now says a bunch of words including "backpack" and "goose egg" and makes all the farm animal noises.
I don't think he knew what to think when I got off the plane. He was a little nervous to go to me at first, but he was obviously happy I was there, with a big grin on his face. I knew I'd be a little emotional being back and really seeing all the things I've missed, even though I've been keeping a list of all the new things Logan learns to do.
I'm very happy to be able come home for the weekend and I know it's going to be hard to leave on Monday.
Day 17
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
The highlight of today was the WAFC donor luncheon, an opportunity to show appreciation to the donor companies for the generous financial support that makes the Food Industry Managment program possible. The event was held at USC's Town & Gown where we had the opportunity to dine and network with about 150 other retailers, distributors, and manufacturers, nearly half of whom were graduates of either the FIM program or the FIM Executive program.
Jim Lee, President of Stater Brothers, and Karl Schroeder, President of Safeway Northern California, both spoke passionately about WAFC's education mission and encouraged the donors to continue their support into the future. Karl talked a lot about the importance of keeping the long term benefits of the program in mind and acknowledged how difficult it is in today's environment, where Wall Street is focused on short term profits, for companies to resist the pressure to do the same. This dove-tailed nicely with what Professors Arnold and Hill have been talking about this week in different contexts. Karl was an exceptional speaker and if you have the opportunity to hear him I highly recommend it. He has a very honest, conversational style that is very persuasive. He obviously believes strongly in the power of education to transform our industry, particularly with the Retail Management Certificate community college program.
During the event I also had the opportunity to talk with Dick King, President of Associated Food Stores and a really nice guy. Two past FIM students from Associated have worked for Haggen and Dick had a lot of nice things to say about our company including that he thinks it was a real benefit for those students to work with us and be able to take that knowledge back home with them. Associated works with a lot of single store family-owned independent retailers and this year is sponsoring my classmate Stephanie Herr. Stephanie works for her parents at Roy's Market in Elko, Nevada and, as I may have mentioned, is the youngest of our class at 23, but she's a real go-getter and can definately hold her own. She's in two of my working groups and makes a great contribution to the team.
My day wrapped up with three group meetings from 2-7:30 and then Nielsen research for our Case Study project until 11pm.
The highlight of today was the WAFC donor luncheon, an opportunity to show appreciation to the donor companies for the generous financial support that makes the Food Industry Managment program possible. The event was held at USC's Town & Gown where we had the opportunity to dine and network with about 150 other retailers, distributors, and manufacturers, nearly half of whom were graduates of either the FIM program or the FIM Executive program.
Jim Lee, President of Stater Brothers, and Karl Schroeder, President of Safeway Northern California, both spoke passionately about WAFC's education mission and encouraged the donors to continue their support into the future. Karl talked a lot about the importance of keeping the long term benefits of the program in mind and acknowledged how difficult it is in today's environment, where Wall Street is focused on short term profits, for companies to resist the pressure to do the same. This dove-tailed nicely with what Professors Arnold and Hill have been talking about this week in different contexts. Karl was an exceptional speaker and if you have the opportunity to hear him I highly recommend it. He has a very honest, conversational style that is very persuasive. He obviously believes strongly in the power of education to transform our industry, particularly with the Retail Management Certificate community college program.
During the event I also had the opportunity to talk with Dick King, President of Associated Food Stores and a really nice guy. Two past FIM students from Associated have worked for Haggen and Dick had a lot of nice things to say about our company including that he thinks it was a real benefit for those students to work with us and be able to take that knowledge back home with them. Associated works with a lot of single store family-owned independent retailers and this year is sponsoring my classmate Stephanie Herr. Stephanie works for her parents at Roy's Market in Elko, Nevada and, as I may have mentioned, is the youngest of our class at 23, but she's a real go-getter and can definately hold her own. She's in two of my working groups and makes a great contribution to the team.
My day wrapped up with three group meetings from 2-7:30 and then Nielsen research for our Case Study project until 11pm.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Day 15
Monday, February 11, 2008
As soon as we arrived we turned in our first real FIMSIM decision. We then started the morning off with Professor Arnold talking about our Nielsen case study, before moving on to analyzing labor for FIMSIM using the decision making model he presented to us on Thursday. After that we discussed trends in the industry related to increased government regulation and health & wellness, using a story from today's morningnewsbeat.com (about DeCicco Markets in New York) and finished up with an article from the Harvard Business Review titled "What is Strategy?" which we're to read and be prepared to discuss on Thursday.
After Tom's class, Professor Donna Miles presented us with more Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator information which we're all enjoying very much. It's really fun to better understand why we all do the crazy little things we do and be able to predict, to some extent, what will happen when different types interact, all based on our natural preferences.
Donna then imparted to us the correct way to put together persuasive presentations and we now know that just about every presentation we've ever done, or seen for that matter, was set up exactly opposite of how it should have been and actually hindered the ability of the speaker to persuade anyone of anything rather than helping them.
If there's one consistent theme I've discovered throughout the program so far it's this:
Nearly everything you've ever learned is wrong, but the right way is not only more effective, it's easier, more fun, and more intuitive.
Where I originally thought we'd be learning how to be more "corporate" it's precisely the opposite. Particularly with communications the message is that you don't have to be a clone. Using your own unique abilities and voice and bringing your passion to your work is what really makes you stand out and achieve great things.
I then spent the rest of the afternoon meeting with two different groups on three different projects before catching a ride back to Oakwood to work on reading and homework.
As soon as we arrived we turned in our first real FIMSIM decision. We then started the morning off with Professor Arnold talking about our Nielsen case study, before moving on to analyzing labor for FIMSIM using the decision making model he presented to us on Thursday. After that we discussed trends in the industry related to increased government regulation and health & wellness, using a story from today's morningnewsbeat.com (about DeCicco Markets in New York) and finished up with an article from the Harvard Business Review titled "What is Strategy?" which we're to read and be prepared to discuss on Thursday.
After Tom's class, Professor Donna Miles presented us with more Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator information which we're all enjoying very much. It's really fun to better understand why we all do the crazy little things we do and be able to predict, to some extent, what will happen when different types interact, all based on our natural preferences.
Donna then imparted to us the correct way to put together persuasive presentations and we now know that just about every presentation we've ever done, or seen for that matter, was set up exactly opposite of how it should have been and actually hindered the ability of the speaker to persuade anyone of anything rather than helping them.
If there's one consistent theme I've discovered throughout the program so far it's this:
Nearly everything you've ever learned is wrong, but the right way is not only more effective, it's easier, more fun, and more intuitive.
Where I originally thought we'd be learning how to be more "corporate" it's precisely the opposite. Particularly with communications the message is that you don't have to be a clone. Using your own unique abilities and voice and bringing your passion to your work is what really makes you stand out and achieve great things.
I then spent the rest of the afternoon meeting with two different groups on three different projects before catching a ride back to Oakwood to work on reading and homework.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Week 3
Things really started to heat up this week!
On Monday we received our FIMSIM materials. Each team will run a grocery store for sixteen weeks with expansion taking us up to a possible total of four stores. The team with the greatest net income at the end "wins," although it's really the opportunity to learn analysis and strategy and to fail without consequences, that matters - but we still want to win!
After our classes on Monday we took a trip out to City of Industry to visit Heartland Farms, a dairy processing plant owned by Stater Brothers. They put on a nice lunch for us and Scott Gonia, the Director of Plant Operations, took us on a tour of the facility. The plant produces tens of thousands of gallons of milk products and juice each day and it's amazing as you walk around how few people it takes to operate the plant.
Chris Jongko from Kraft dons his hairnet in preparation for the tour.
Jimmy from Costco and me, also in our hairnets.
The receiving dock at Heartland Farms. Each truck brings in 5,500 gallons of milk.
Dawn, Rod, and Jimmy look on in the testing room as a technician explains how they test to ensure there aren't any antibiotics in the incoming milk and what they do if they find any.
A machine on the line boxing the cartons of juice (automation).
The white arm-like thing inside the cage is a robot that picks up the boxed product using suction and palletizes them. Everyone was enthralled by the speed and precision with which it worked.
Here another robotic station shrink wraps the finished pallets before they're sent down the conveyor line to the cooling room.
Below the pick line brings many different products together into various slots where the computer uses a series of gates and conveyors to "pick" the products for each order. Orders of less than a full case are picked by humans. Because of the automation and computer control they can track the fluid in any item all the way back through the plant to the truck that brought it in, and the farm from which it came.
The tour was great and the staff were very knowledgeable and pleased to answer our questions. It's incredibly interesting to see what goes into getting that jug of milk or bottle of juice onto the store shelf.
After class I spent about six hours analyzing the FIMSIM data and building various analytic spreadsheets as well as an operating statement by department to use not only for summarizing our performance, but to project, based on our inputs, what our stores' net income will be. This also allows us to validate our decisions before we finalize them each "week."
After that I did some reading, wrote a paper for Professor Hill about my personality or at least my own perception of it, which should be fairly accurate now that I've spent the last two weeks learning all about myself.
Tuesday we had class until noon and then I spent the afternoon working on various projects, reading, and working with my FIMSIM team to make our first "decision." It was actually a practice decision since Professor Arnold was nice enough to give us the opportunity to take a crack at it without having to live with the consequences. This was great because not only did it give us a chance to get familiar with the simulation, but we were also able to test a strategy and see what happened. I won't tell you all what our team's strategy is, in case any of my classmates are reading this, but I will tell you that we came out within $100 net income of our projection. That's not to say we nailed every component, but overall we were where we thought we'd be.
After that Dawn invited several of us over for meatloaf, mashed red potatoes with kale, and steamed green beans. Eveything was great and it's always a nice event when someone decides to make a home cooked meal!
Wednesday we made our first presentation in the Experiential Learning Center (ELC) where we presented to our small group everything they needed to know about us - specifically our strengths and personality types as defined by the instruments we've taken over the last two weeks. The "fun" part was that we were video taped and then saw the results and received "feedforward" from our groups on what we could do in the future to be even better. My group ran a little long so I didn't get to see myself right then, but my group said I did a great job and that I seemed very comfortable. Feeling well pleased with myself I took the DVD home only to see several glaring things that I need to work on when I watched it. It wasn't a bad start, but I can and will do better.
Thursday was our first accounting quiz. There was a lot of anxiety by most of the class that was only somewhat assuaged when halfway through we were allowed to work in groups and given until the end of the day to complete it. The additional requirements were that there could be no more than three in a group, we were honor bound not to use notes, and we could not talk to any other group until everyone had turned it in. I got myself into a little bit of hot water and picked up a new nickname - "Kobe."
It all started as soon as Professor Davila (a huge Laker's fan) said we could work in groups (and before he'd added the other requirements) and half the class yelled out "Kevin!" I said "Whoa, wait a minute I need to look at the questions and understand them before I can help anyone else." The rest of the class started to talk amongst themselves and the Professor added that once you'd started conversing you were bound to that group. This made it easier for me, but then Professor Davila, seeing that I was still by myself, asked if I was Kobe Bryant and I could do it all on my own - it was good natured, but I don't think he was really joking. I should have either just said yes or explained that I'm an I (Myers-Briggs "Introvert") and need to think about the question and my answers before discussing, but instead I just said no and started working with Chris Jongko who was right next to me. The funny thing was that Chris was more comfortable with the material than most of the others in the class and didn't really need me. I think we did well enough on the quiz so long as we answered the right question. The other thing about Professor Davila is that he seems to prefer to just hand out a fact sheet and then either make up the quiz question on the spot or give you a question that's totally different than the one written on the quiz (if indeed there is a question listed on the quiz), so we'll see.
I kept quiet for the next half hour and by then any tension (that was probably only in my mind in the first place) had blown over.
Friday we came in for a three hour session with Professor Arnold where the Nielsen Company came in and presented what their service does for the industry as well as a Case Study assignment for our class using their data. This was where we picked up our third working group of the week which makes scheduling a lot more difficult. My group's assignment is to represent Kraft's Starbucks coffee to a retailer (Retailer X) as their account team. We're to use the Nielsen data to craft a presentation over the next two weeks to convince the retailer to give us a commitment for an endcap display, including a sampling event, to promote Starbucks special holiday varieties in 12oz bags during the winter holiday promotional window.
What's fun about this project, aside from getting to use real data and reports from Nielsen in a realistic scenario, is that Chris Jongko has represented Kraft's Starbucks, Folgers, and Maxwell House brands (the three brands that all of the presentations relate to) to Walmart for the past two years. This project gives him the opportunity to be the "expert" in our class and although he's not on my team he has graciously offered to help everyone with the Nielsen data and how to use it in analysis.
After the case study assignment presentation we all went to the University Club with the executives from Nielsen and Professor Arnold and had a chance to sit and talk with them about their insights into the grocery industry. They were also very interested in our insights and asked a lot of good questions about our companies and business.
By the end of Friday everyone was just about dizzy. Those who could, left for home to see their families and catch up. About a dozen of us that are staying at Oakwood went to Wharro, a korean barbeque restaurant nearby, for a fun dinner that had us sitting around a table inset with charcoal grills and grilling up our own meat and vegetables. We had a great time and were still able to make it home by 8pm. I then worked on the assigned accounting homework and read some more books before turning in for the night.
Finally a note to all my loyal and supportive readers: I'm going to try going back to posting evey day or two. It's probably more interesting and a better story for you that way and I don't have to think so hard to remember what happened for the whole week. Look for a new post tomorrow!
On Monday we received our FIMSIM materials. Each team will run a grocery store for sixteen weeks with expansion taking us up to a possible total of four stores. The team with the greatest net income at the end "wins," although it's really the opportunity to learn analysis and strategy and to fail without consequences, that matters - but we still want to win!
After our classes on Monday we took a trip out to City of Industry to visit Heartland Farms, a dairy processing plant owned by Stater Brothers. They put on a nice lunch for us and Scott Gonia, the Director of Plant Operations, took us on a tour of the facility. The plant produces tens of thousands of gallons of milk products and juice each day and it's amazing as you walk around how few people it takes to operate the plant.
Chris Jongko from Kraft dons his hairnet in preparation for the tour.
Jimmy from Costco and me, also in our hairnets.
The receiving dock at Heartland Farms. Each truck brings in 5,500 gallons of milk.
Dawn, Rod, and Jimmy look on in the testing room as a technician explains how they test to ensure there aren't any antibiotics in the incoming milk and what they do if they find any.
A machine on the line boxing the cartons of juice (automation).
The white arm-like thing inside the cage is a robot that picks up the boxed product using suction and palletizes them. Everyone was enthralled by the speed and precision with which it worked.
Here another robotic station shrink wraps the finished pallets before they're sent down the conveyor line to the cooling room.
Below the pick line brings many different products together into various slots where the computer uses a series of gates and conveyors to "pick" the products for each order. Orders of less than a full case are picked by humans. Because of the automation and computer control they can track the fluid in any item all the way back through the plant to the truck that brought it in, and the farm from which it came.
The tour was great and the staff were very knowledgeable and pleased to answer our questions. It's incredibly interesting to see what goes into getting that jug of milk or bottle of juice onto the store shelf.
After class I spent about six hours analyzing the FIMSIM data and building various analytic spreadsheets as well as an operating statement by department to use not only for summarizing our performance, but to project, based on our inputs, what our stores' net income will be. This also allows us to validate our decisions before we finalize them each "week."
After that I did some reading, wrote a paper for Professor Hill about my personality or at least my own perception of it, which should be fairly accurate now that I've spent the last two weeks learning all about myself.
Tuesday we had class until noon and then I spent the afternoon working on various projects, reading, and working with my FIMSIM team to make our first "decision." It was actually a practice decision since Professor Arnold was nice enough to give us the opportunity to take a crack at it without having to live with the consequences. This was great because not only did it give us a chance to get familiar with the simulation, but we were also able to test a strategy and see what happened. I won't tell you all what our team's strategy is, in case any of my classmates are reading this, but I will tell you that we came out within $100 net income of our projection. That's not to say we nailed every component, but overall we were where we thought we'd be.
After that Dawn invited several of us over for meatloaf, mashed red potatoes with kale, and steamed green beans. Eveything was great and it's always a nice event when someone decides to make a home cooked meal!
Wednesday we made our first presentation in the Experiential Learning Center (ELC) where we presented to our small group everything they needed to know about us - specifically our strengths and personality types as defined by the instruments we've taken over the last two weeks. The "fun" part was that we were video taped and then saw the results and received "feedforward" from our groups on what we could do in the future to be even better. My group ran a little long so I didn't get to see myself right then, but my group said I did a great job and that I seemed very comfortable. Feeling well pleased with myself I took the DVD home only to see several glaring things that I need to work on when I watched it. It wasn't a bad start, but I can and will do better.
Thursday was our first accounting quiz. There was a lot of anxiety by most of the class that was only somewhat assuaged when halfway through we were allowed to work in groups and given until the end of the day to complete it. The additional requirements were that there could be no more than three in a group, we were honor bound not to use notes, and we could not talk to any other group until everyone had turned it in. I got myself into a little bit of hot water and picked up a new nickname - "Kobe."
It all started as soon as Professor Davila (a huge Laker's fan) said we could work in groups (and before he'd added the other requirements) and half the class yelled out "Kevin!" I said "Whoa, wait a minute I need to look at the questions and understand them before I can help anyone else." The rest of the class started to talk amongst themselves and the Professor added that once you'd started conversing you were bound to that group. This made it easier for me, but then Professor Davila, seeing that I was still by myself, asked if I was Kobe Bryant and I could do it all on my own - it was good natured, but I don't think he was really joking. I should have either just said yes or explained that I'm an I (Myers-Briggs "Introvert") and need to think about the question and my answers before discussing, but instead I just said no and started working with Chris Jongko who was right next to me. The funny thing was that Chris was more comfortable with the material than most of the others in the class and didn't really need me. I think we did well enough on the quiz so long as we answered the right question. The other thing about Professor Davila is that he seems to prefer to just hand out a fact sheet and then either make up the quiz question on the spot or give you a question that's totally different than the one written on the quiz (if indeed there is a question listed on the quiz), so we'll see.
I kept quiet for the next half hour and by then any tension (that was probably only in my mind in the first place) had blown over.
Friday we came in for a three hour session with Professor Arnold where the Nielsen Company came in and presented what their service does for the industry as well as a Case Study assignment for our class using their data. This was where we picked up our third working group of the week which makes scheduling a lot more difficult. My group's assignment is to represent Kraft's Starbucks coffee to a retailer (Retailer X) as their account team. We're to use the Nielsen data to craft a presentation over the next two weeks to convince the retailer to give us a commitment for an endcap display, including a sampling event, to promote Starbucks special holiday varieties in 12oz bags during the winter holiday promotional window.
What's fun about this project, aside from getting to use real data and reports from Nielsen in a realistic scenario, is that Chris Jongko has represented Kraft's Starbucks, Folgers, and Maxwell House brands (the three brands that all of the presentations relate to) to Walmart for the past two years. This project gives him the opportunity to be the "expert" in our class and although he's not on my team he has graciously offered to help everyone with the Nielsen data and how to use it in analysis.
After the case study assignment presentation we all went to the University Club with the executives from Nielsen and Professor Arnold and had a chance to sit and talk with them about their insights into the grocery industry. They were also very interested in our insights and asked a lot of good questions about our companies and business.
By the end of Friday everyone was just about dizzy. Those who could, left for home to see their families and catch up. About a dozen of us that are staying at Oakwood went to Wharro, a korean barbeque restaurant nearby, for a fun dinner that had us sitting around a table inset with charcoal grills and grilling up our own meat and vegetables. We had a great time and were still able to make it home by 8pm. I then worked on the assigned accounting homework and read some more books before turning in for the night.
Finally a note to all my loyal and supportive readers: I'm going to try going back to posting evey day or two. It's probably more interesting and a better story for you that way and I don't have to think so hard to remember what happened for the whole week. Look for a new post tomorrow!
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Week 2 - FIMSIM Teams Revealed
Friday February 1, 2008
We had a special three hour class today with Tom Arnold, to make up some of the time we lost when he was sick last week, at the end of which he revealed the composition of our FIMSIM teams.
I could hardly be more pleased with the team I'm on. In addition to myself we have Tracy Hayes from Albertson's, Brooke Fan from Safeway, and John Petersen from Unified Grocers. There isn't a single person in the overall group that I wouldn't have wanted to work with, but Tracy, Brooke, John, and I will complement each others' strengths well. In my opinion, one of the best things about our team is that we all have very compatible personalities. Everyone's a team player and will lead the team according to their skills and the requirements of the situation rather than anyone trying to drag the team where they want to go. While that can sometimes be a useful skill, I believe the caliber of people represented in the FIM group will produce maximum results when everyone is allowed to make a meaningful contribution.
Wish us luck!
We had a special three hour class today with Tom Arnold, to make up some of the time we lost when he was sick last week, at the end of which he revealed the composition of our FIMSIM teams.
I could hardly be more pleased with the team I'm on. In addition to myself we have Tracy Hayes from Albertson's, Brooke Fan from Safeway, and John Petersen from Unified Grocers. There isn't a single person in the overall group that I wouldn't have wanted to work with, but Tracy, Brooke, John, and I will complement each others' strengths well. In my opinion, one of the best things about our team is that we all have very compatible personalities. Everyone's a team player and will lead the team according to their skills and the requirements of the situation rather than anyone trying to drag the team where they want to go. While that can sometimes be a useful skill, I believe the caliber of people represented in the FIM group will produce maximum results when everyone is allowed to make a meaningful contribution.
Wish us luck!
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