Thursday, March 6, 2008
Kevin Davis, President and CEO of Bristol Farms, came and spoke to us in Tom's class today and he was great. One of the most important components of the FIM program is the opportunity to talk with senior executives from our industry and to ask them questions about their experiences and how they've handled different situations.
Kevin was an excellent speaker, very knowledgeable about the industry, and quick on his feet in that he can switch to talking about anything in an instant. What I found most interesting about his story was that he left a large chain (Ralph's) as a Senior VP to take over Bristol Farms, which at that time was a three store chain without any infrastructure. His description of having to put all of the pieces into place in order to grow the company to its current 16 stores was something you'd have a hard time getting anywhere else.
Now that Bristol Farms has been acquired by Supervalu, through Albertson's, it's also enlightening to hear about how a small company can maintain its identity after being purchased by one of the largest food retailers in America. The fact that Kevin can tell Jeff Noddle, CEO of Supervalu, that they need to build a lot more stores in southern California before they can even consider a store in Seattle or New York speaks to the good relationship they have.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Day 31
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
After "6 weeks" (6 decisions) with our FIMSIM stores we presented our companies along with results and projections for the future to our "Board of Directors," which in this case was Tom Arnold, the director of the FIM program. The presentation went extremely well, despite the fact that we'd had a few setbacks in the two decisions before the presentation. We're confident we can get things back on track and believe we're still in the top two teams in terms of overall performance. We'll know for sure after "week 8" when we all post our results again. All of the other teams still think we're absolutely killing them.
The Dream Team: John Petersen (Unified), Brooke Fan (Safeway), Tracy Hayes (Albertson's), and me.
One of the most exciting things about our presentation was Brooke Fan. She's very quiet in class and reserved in our meetings. John, Tracy and I are probably the only three in class that really know how smart she is. During our presentation, however, she took the stage and did a fabulous job. Tom Arnold even commented that he was very surprised at how well she presents and asked her why she doesn't speak up in class. He also noted that "these three guys always have something to say." When the shoe fits...
Week 6 Weekend
Saturday, March 1, 2008
The weekend opened at 7 am with an 8 mile walk to Santa Monica and back with seven of my classmates. On the way back we stopped at Fig Tree's cafe for a great breakfast - french toast, omeletes, and someone had lox and bagels.
Back row from left: Tom Terrel (Food4Less Store Manager of the Year), Michelle Schlefstein (Dole), Ron Mitchell (Unified), Me, Juan Hidalgo (Basha's), Stephanie Herr (Associated Foods).
Front from left: Dawn Davies and Christel Ebenson (both from Safeway).
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Day 28
Friday February 29, 2008
Today was another terrific day. I talked Wendy into coming down to visit and bringing Logan for Easter weekend. She's a little nervous about flying with him for the first time (and solo to boot) and I can't blame her. I think we're really going to have a great time though and I'm excited for her to meet all of my new friends and for them to meet my family.
We made it through our Nielsen Case Study presentation today. Again, this was a fun experience and took most of us far outside our normal range of activities. My group acted as a sales team for Kraft selling Starbucks coffee to a retailer. We had to use Nielsen scan data and Spectra demographic information to convince the retailer to commit to a holiday promotional end cap and sampling event. I have a much better insight now into what our buying staff does, how they probably evaluate promotional opportunities, and what vendors and distributors go through to prepare for their meetings. My group included John Ignacio (Safeway Store Manager), Tracy Hayes (Albertson's Safety Director), Miguel Gallardo (Costco Assistant Warehouse Manager), Scott Schuette (Basha's Perishable Coordinator), and Michael Meadows (DPI Product Manager). We worked very well together and probably put in over 100 hours total on this project.
Today was another terrific day. I talked Wendy into coming down to visit and bringing Logan for Easter weekend. She's a little nervous about flying with him for the first time (and solo to boot) and I can't blame her. I think we're really going to have a great time though and I'm excited for her to meet all of my new friends and for them to meet my family.
We made it through our Nielsen Case Study presentation today. Again, this was a fun experience and took most of us far outside our normal range of activities. My group acted as a sales team for Kraft selling Starbucks coffee to a retailer. We had to use Nielsen scan data and Spectra demographic information to convince the retailer to commit to a holiday promotional end cap and sampling event. I have a much better insight now into what our buying staff does, how they probably evaluate promotional opportunities, and what vendors and distributors go through to prepare for their meetings. My group included John Ignacio (Safeway Store Manager), Tracy Hayes (Albertson's Safety Director), Miguel Gallardo (Costco Assistant Warehouse Manager), Scott Schuette (Basha's Perishable Coordinator), and Michael Meadows (DPI Product Manager). We worked very well together and probably put in over 100 hours total on this project.
Day 26
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
In our communications class we navigated an exercise in "Dealing with Difficult People." This was the first and only time that Sue Yarkosky and I will get to work together down here (except for our Haggen presentation) and we did very well.
Eight of our classmates volunteered to play the difficult people (John Ignacio, Chris Jongko, Ron Mitchell, Christian Tesoro, Dawn Davies, Andrea Dimond, Tony McAndrews, and Michelle Schlefstein). Each had a role to play: "The Negativist," "The Super Agreeable," "The Complainer," and "The Clam" and a situation in which to play it. The rest of us broke into teams of two and for each situation we went into a room where the difficult person awaited. We had a little bit of background on the situation and a goal. For example, with "The Clam" we were a product management team that had to get their agreement to roll out a new product, but as we tried to convince them they just sat there and looked at us without saying anything. The key here was to ask pointed and open ended questions that required more than a yes or no answer.
Sue and I were reasonably successful with three of the four situations, but had difficulty dealing with Dawn in her role as "The Complainer." Having "worked" at the fictional company for over 30 years she had a laundry list of complaints and excuses. She's also quite a talker, so we had enough trouble just getting a word in edgewise, let alone attempting to modify her behavior.
This was a great exercise in which we not only learned a lot, but also had a lot of fun. The difficult people all played their roles exceptionally well.
In our communications class we navigated an exercise in "Dealing with Difficult People." This was the first and only time that Sue Yarkosky and I will get to work together down here (except for our Haggen presentation) and we did very well.
Eight of our classmates volunteered to play the difficult people (John Ignacio, Chris Jongko, Ron Mitchell, Christian Tesoro, Dawn Davies, Andrea Dimond, Tony McAndrews, and Michelle Schlefstein). Each had a role to play: "The Negativist," "The Super Agreeable," "The Complainer," and "The Clam" and a situation in which to play it. The rest of us broke into teams of two and for each situation we went into a room where the difficult person awaited. We had a little bit of background on the situation and a goal. For example, with "The Clam" we were a product management team that had to get their agreement to roll out a new product, but as we tried to convince them they just sat there and looked at us without saying anything. The key here was to ask pointed and open ended questions that required more than a yes or no answer.
Sue and I were reasonably successful with three of the four situations, but had difficulty dealing with Dawn in her role as "The Complainer." Having "worked" at the fictional company for over 30 years she had a laundry list of complaints and excuses. She's also quite a talker, so we had enough trouble just getting a word in edgewise, let alone attempting to modify her behavior.
This was a great exercise in which we not only learned a lot, but also had a lot of fun. The difficult people all played their roles exceptionally well.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Day 24
Monday, February 25, 2008
Today was a great day. We presented a business trend in Professor Miles' Communication class (mine was on the use of irradiation in meat safety). The goal was to choose a company and persuade their board of directors (played by our classmates) to implement our proposed solution based on the trends we had identified and analyzed within their business. During the presentation "the board" was to interrupt us with questions and generally try to make us think on our feet. I think I did fairly well, though if anything I think I overprepared the speech and should have spent more time simply absorbing the facts. I actually preferred being asked questions during the process and didn't find it distracting at all. To go along with it we had to prepare a PowerPoint that followed all of the new rules we've learned, so that it magnified our persuasive power and was directly on point, rather than being a distraction.
I really felt relieved to have this and a few other things behind us. I've been playing a bit of catch up since going home to visit and I now feel like I'm back on my game.
We also posted our results for the first four weeks of FIMSIM and my team is number 1! Hopefully it's not fleeting and we can maintain or increase our lead. My team works together extremely well and we're learning something new with each decision we make.
Today was a great day. We presented a business trend in Professor Miles' Communication class (mine was on the use of irradiation in meat safety). The goal was to choose a company and persuade their board of directors (played by our classmates) to implement our proposed solution based on the trends we had identified and analyzed within their business. During the presentation "the board" was to interrupt us with questions and generally try to make us think on our feet. I think I did fairly well, though if anything I think I overprepared the speech and should have spent more time simply absorbing the facts. I actually preferred being asked questions during the process and didn't find it distracting at all. To go along with it we had to prepare a PowerPoint that followed all of the new rules we've learned, so that it magnified our persuasive power and was directly on point, rather than being a distraction.
I really felt relieved to have this and a few other things behind us. I've been playing a bit of catch up since going home to visit and I now feel like I'm back on my game.
We also posted our results for the first four weeks of FIMSIM and my team is number 1! Hopefully it's not fleeting and we can maintain or increase our lead. My team works together extremely well and we're learning something new with each decision we make.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Day 23
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.
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.
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