Day Three

Thursday, January 24, 2008 (Day 3)

Since I've been a little short on pictures lately we'll start with a few:



These are my carpool buddies. Sue Yarkosky from Haggen, Dawn Davies from Safeway and Ron Mitchell from Unified Grocers.

This is our classroom. Rather than running all over campus, we stay put and our instructors rotate through.

This is where we're taking computer classes on the fourth floor of Hoffman Hall. Wayne Wilmeth is teaching us the Marshall system as well as Office 2007. He's not part of the faculty, but one of the IT staff for Marshall and a heck of a nice guy.

We arrived at class this morning to find out that Tom Arnold was sick today. This presented a problem as we were scheduled for four hours with him and then for another computer class at one. Fortunately Maeleine was able to get our computer class moved up to 11 am and we used the time until then to watch and critique videos of the final presentations from last year's class. It was interesting not only to see the videos, but also how my classmates reacted to them. Everyone had a different take and there was a fair bit of disagreement about which ones were the best.

That pretty well wrapped up the day and we headed back to Oakwood by about 2pm. It's been another rainy day so Dawn was able to get us the rec room at Oakwood for the Thursday night BBQ. I guess I'll be out there barbecuing in the rain - but that's nothing new!

Day Two

Wednesday, January 23, 2008 (Day 2)

We had class with Ed Hill this morning and began talking about management of organizational behavior. Ed is a great storyteller and very enjoyable. He makes a lot of good points very subtly using entertaining stories.

Next up was Donna Miles. I can already tell she’s really going to be a hoot. I liked her right away and I’m excited to get a lot of constructive criticism. I have no doubt that I’m going to have a commanding presence when she gets through with me. She gave us the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator to take home, work through, and score to find out our personality type. Should be interesting.

After lunch we had a couple hours with the director of library research on how to use the USC library system. I was amazed how far library research has come in the ten years since I was in college. We had the opportunity to use about a half dozen of the many database subscriptions that the library has access to. It was astounding to be able to look up any company or industry and get analysis and insight into what they do, how they do it and whether or not they're doing a good job.

We also added a fourth to our carpool today: Dawn Davies from Safeway. It's been raining most of the day here (as it did yesterday and is supposed to do for the next week). I guess it's a good night to get some more reading done.

Day One

Tuesday, January 22, 2008 (Day 1)

Today was our fist day of FIM. I say “our” because I really get the sense that we, the students, are all in this together. We went through introductions today and will continue to do so on Thursday. Everyone seems to be of a generally high caliber and there were some really interesting personal stories. Some of us have definitely overcome some major challenges in our lives (like Christel, from Safeway, who dodged secret police as a journalist in Cameroon before immigrating to the U.S.A. and has since put two of her siblings through college while working her way up to store manager).

During the presentations I noticed how many people have real difficulty with public speaking ranging from not knowing exactly what they want to say to real physical reactions like red blotches on their necks, red faces and even hands turning purple from clenching. This is surprising to me since everyone seems really good at communicating one on one or in small groups. There were also a few people who are extremely comfortable speaking in public. Andrea Dimond from Dreyer’s (a mother of five) was very much at ease and Rebecka Cupp, the pharmacy director for Ralph's(?), brought a lot of drama to her presentation. Generally I’d say the vendors are more comfortable with it than the retailers, probably because of the number of times they’ve made presentations.

I’d put myself somewhere in the middle of the group. I don’t think I have a physical reaction and I don’t have a lot of butterflies, but I’m a bit distracted being up there and I have a tendency to leave out some of the things I had thought I might mention. I don’t do as many of the bad hand habits as some people do, but I do a few and even notice them while I’m doing it. That's something I'll need to work on.

Both Professors Tom Arnold and Ed Hill talked a little bit about themselves today and are quite impressive. Tom has been an engineer, a business person (MBA), and a lawyer before becoming a teacher. Ed Hill is a pioneer in the grocery industry, has done a lot of retail consulting, mostly in Europe (including with Tesco), and owns a working Sherman Tank in Idaho. I think both will bring a tremendous amount of knowledge, experience and vision to our classes.

After class ended we had a group photo taken as well as head shots and then took a two hour Excel training session. I didn't learn much at this one, but the instructor was very helpful to some of the other students and I did have the opportunity to help a few of my classmates out, so it was certainly worth my time.

Tomorrow we begin the coursework in earnest.

The Canals of Venice

Today was another study day. I didn't get quite as much read as I had hoped, but I'm well into three of the books for the communication class. I felt that it was more important for me to really understand what I've read so I took about three hours today and wrote a couple papers, just for myself, to summarize and restate what I'd read in Type Talk at Work (about the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) and Why Business People Speak Like Idiots (about avoiding the traps and pitfalls that get in the way of successfully communicating at work).

About 4pm Sue and I went for a walk with Ron from Unified over to the Venice Canals. They're just about two blocks from Oakwood and I would never have known they were there. It's a series of canals between the streets with houses lining each of them and footbridges in between. In typical California fashion there's every manner of architectural style and size ranging from 1000 sq. ft. bungalows to 3000 sq ft moderns. One of the larger houses we passed was for sale for a mere $2.9 million. It even had a two car garage which, I would say, is unheard of around here.

After the walk Ron and Sue came over for dinner. I used the "Easy Enchilada" filling I had made yesterday to whip up some enchiladas which were accompanied by a chop salad (thanks Ron for bringing tomatoes) and a quick pan of cornbread. We decided we'll carpool together tomorrow, leaving at 7 am to make sure we're early.

Tomorrow's the first day of class and I feel very excited. I'm anxious to get to work.

The Weekend

Saturday, January 19, 2008.

Wendy emailed me some new pictures of Logan. This is my favorite one. I got him the shirt when I came down in December for the tour. It says "Somebody at USC loves me!" I really miss both of them.

I did a lot of reading today. I'd like to get through at least three of the books before we start class on Tuesday. I feel like everything I can do to get ahead now will pay dividends in the weeks ahead.

I also ran some errands today. It's surprising how much stuff you need and how much time it takes to get your life set up down here. It also takes a fair bit of time to get anywhere. It's not hard to burn through half your day just running around.

Note for 2009 class: Get down to Los Angeles as soon as you can, get familiar with the area and get everything you need to feel dialed in and ready to work.


Sunday, January20, 2008.


I hit the gym at 6 am this morning which was great. I haven't felt like I have a lot of time for regular exercise since Logan was born, but I don't really have any excuses while I'm down here. They have a nice facility and I pretty much had it to myself at that hour. I'm glad it's a short walk over there because I was in a t-shirt and shorts and nearly froze to death. I forget that it's still winter and at night it gets down to the high thirties or low forties.


After that I got a haircut (gotta look good for pictures on Tuesday) and then drove up to Santa Monica which is only a couple miles up Pacific Avenue. What a view! Too bad I didn't have my camera with me. I'll have to go up again to take some pictures to share with all of you.


Later that afternoon Sue and I decided to walk down to Venice Beach. Quite a freak show. It's kind of like a permanent street fair on the boardwalk with all sorts of entertainers ranging from the energetic (young hip-hop acrobats and Brazilian drummers), to the unusual (a gold painted mime who looked like a statue with a gold painted mime dog who would move when given tips), to the deranged (a man in pseudo-African tribal dress standing on one foot on a ten food A-frame ladder holding snakes and preaching Armageddon). It goes on for miles, but we quickly tired of the incense and t-shirt shops, piercing parlors and hustlers and walked back on the beach. The thing that struck me was that even with the temperature nearing 70 degrees there were thousands on the boardwalk, but only a handful of people actually on the beach or down by the water. We continued our walk around the marina and the surrounding area before heading back to Oakwood. We had walked for about three hours by the time we made it back and I was getting a bit footsore.


I made Wendy's famous "Easy Enchilladas" for dinner which I'll be eating for several meals to come. This was my first real attempt at cooking since I've been here and I'd forgotten how many left-overs you end up with when cooking for one. I imagine as I get to know more of my classmates and their schedules we'll probably be doing some communal meals. Otherwise I'll be drowning in sameness.


I finished out the day with some more reading, talked with Wendy and Logan on the phone and fell asleep with a book on my face.

Orientation

Today was the first day of the program. Orientation. A chance to meet Tom Arnold, the program director, and to spend some time with last year's alumni as well as meet our classmates. What a great day and how exciting!

Sue and I drove in together and arrived about a half hour early. To my surprise, and pleasure, probably half of the class was already there. As we walked in and got coffee we immediately began meeting and greeting; there was very little standoffishness here - everyone was an experienced business professional and knew how to act like it. Everyone that I met seemed very pleasant and I quickly discovered that most of them had been told the same thing by their predecessors that I had been told by mine - accounting knowledge in the program is rare and to be treasured. I found I suddenly had at least ten new friends eager to get to know me and secure my goodwill and future help.

At about 9:30 we got started and Professor Arnold spoke for a few minutes, announced that 2008 is the 50th anniversary of the FIM program and then introduced the alumni, after passing on our first reading assignment from Professor Miles. Fully half of the students from last year were back today to give us a tour, share their insights and help make us as comfortable and prepared as possible. They also tried to impart to us the importance of tradition at USC and to pass on some of the FIM traditions to our class.

Several of the alumni stood up and spoke about various aspects of the program and I was immediately impressed with the presence and excellent speaking skills they brought to the presentation. I was particularly impressed with Fred from Basha's (the spokesperson for the 2007 class), Lou a 33 year veteran of Safeway (who I believe was recently promoted to Vice President), Erin the class of 2007's Spice Girl (she works for McCormick) and our very own Matt Johnson. There were several others, but those are the ones that were both most outstanding and that I had the most opportunity to talk with throughout the day. They were so excited for us and passionate about what we would be learning that it was infectious and I think we all started to really get excited too.

After they spoke and answered questions for awhile, we broke into smaller groups and toured with a few of the alumni. Most of the students hadn't had a chance to get their books, parking permit, etc. yet so we made a lot of stops to do that. We broke up at about 1pm with the alumni inviting us to come to Oakwood, where I'm living, for a barbeque in our honor at 5pm. Sue and I had lunch with a few of our classmates and then headed back to Oakwood.

Just after 5pm I headed to the barbeque for more meeting and greeting. It was a nice casual atmosphere and I got to meet some more folks and get to know some of those I'd met earlier a little better. About an hour into it Denny, 2007's BBQ speaker, gave a toast and the 2007 class presented us with a few gifts. The first was the FIM barbeque tools, that they had received from the 2006 class. One of the FIM traditions is that every Thursday evening, no matter how much work we have to do and how stressed we may feel, we're supposed to have a barbeque. Somehow I was spontaneously elected grillmaster by my class (and perpetual washer of the barbeque tools) and I immediately got to work grilling burgers and dogs with 2007's grill man Mike "Moose" Johnson from Unified Grocers. They also gave us a propane heater since it gets pretty cold as soon as the sun goes down. Stephanie, from Associated Foods, was appointed class handyman and charged with getting the heater assembled by next Thursday and Dawn, from Safeway, volunteered to be our BBQ speaker/toast giver.

The BBQ broke up about 9 and I went back to my apartment to get started on some reading. Today was a great day and I'm even more excited about USC after feeling the enthusiasm from the 2007 class.

Settling In

Not a whole lot to report today. I got the apartment squared away - put things away, washed the dishes, etc. - then ran down the street to Albertson's to pick up a few groceries. I didn't have much time as I was meeting Sue and we were going to USC to take care of some errands, but I wanted to have a few things for when I got back.

The Albertson's on Washington Boulevard, about two miles from Oakwood is right next to a Costco in a little shopping center. The store itself wasn't bad, but the produce was a little sad, the prices were outrageous ($5 a gallon for private label milk!) and the crew was generally unpleasant. I left with only half the things on my short list and was thankful to be leaving.

We left for USC at 10 am, arrived just before 11 (even though it's probably only 18 miles away) and went to get books. Sue had picked hers up a few days before so I was forewarned of possible problems and after only minor difficulty was able to get all the books I needed; there are ten in all:

Financial Accounting
Managerial Accounting
Speak Like a CEO
Management of Organizational Behavior
Strengthsfinder 2.0
Type Talk at Work
The Articulate Executive in Action
Why Business People Speak Like Idiots
The One Thing You Need to Know
Communication for Management

I'm glad I have the long weekend to get through some reading before class starts.

We then went to the parking office, were told there weren't any spaces available on campus, convinced the service rep we were special and had prior reservations, filled out the paperwork, were told we couldn't pay with credit cards, went back to the bookstore to find an ATM that would give us $400, found the atms, determined they were broken, found some other atms, got our cash, went back to the parking office and retrieved our permits.

Then it was time to go to Health Services for shots. We both needed an MMR vaccine because we couldn't provide documentation that we'd had them before (though of course we have). This went pretty smooth and we emerged none the worse for being poked with needles and the nurse gave me a lolly pop.

By now it was after 1pm and we were both starving so we hit the student commons for some gyros - I had chicken and Sue had lamb. The food on campus is generally good and there's a tremendous variety to choose from.

After lunch we went back to Oakwood dropped off our stuff, I did a few errands there and then we decided to go to Ralph's. Sue had spotted it a few days earlier when taking her husband back to the airport and had quickly made it "her store" for the duration of our stay.

Ralph's was everything Albertson's wasn't. The store was beautiful, reminding me of the Fairhaven Haggen. It was clean, the product was good, the shelves were stocked and the employees were very friendly. Oh, and the prices were low. So of course it's "my store" now too.

That was about it. Tomorrow is orientation and our chance to meet our fellow students.