The MBA Student Voice

Millennials, Innovation, and the Future of Consulting

I recently had the opportunity to attend one of Dean Olian's Distinguished Speaker Series events this Monday with Jim Moffatt '87, the CEO of Global Consulting at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited. Jim joined Deloitte in 1987 after graduating from Anderson, became a partner in 1994, and has been a leader in Deloitte's global scaling initiatives, while focusing on the Energy and Life Sciences / Healthcare practice in particular. My classmate and outgoing president of Anderson's Strategy & Operations Management Association (SOMA) Amirali Ghasemipour had the honor of introducing Jim to a packed Korn Hall audience. The talk left several deep impressions on me, and challenged many of my assumptions:

Go Where the Innovation Goes: We all have preset notions of management consultants' time tested routines- walking in with sharp suits, collecting data, and then implementing a framework analysis and delivering an impressive set of slide decks for their clients- yet Jim's description of the practice could not be any more radically different. A key point he made, for instance, was that management consulting is inherently about adapting as quickly as possible to shifts in technology, industry trends, and client preferences- Deloitte intends to go where the innovation goes (as its recent history of technology and digital agency firms clearly demonstrates); no matter what function or industry you are in, for example, you have to learn to speak the language and understand the underlying concepts of the 21st century technological revolution. Jim made an important point about being cognizant not to surround yourself with people who tell you what you want to hear; that's a recipe for stagnant complacency and lost value, and a surefire way to get left behind. 

Driven By Purpose: Moreover, as someone deeply passionate about human capital and organizational transformation, I especially gravitated towards Jim's comments and overall outlook on the millennial workforce. It's rubbish, he maintained, to assume millennial are any less committed to their organizations as the generation before. In fact, as he pointed out- when he joined Deloitte out of business school, he too planned on being there for only two years. The key, ultimately, to empowering a millennial workforce is to align their work with a meaningful purpose or call to action. It's not enough to expect to be able to retain your top talent just by handing over a paycheck every other week- there has to be a greater social, economic, or technological impact for it to be appealing. In addition, millennials want "cool", exciting jobs- it's one of the reasons Jim cites for why Deloitte specifically looks to enter into innovative fields like machine learning and digital strategy.

Make The Important Things A Priority:  One of the biggest internal conflicts I've experienced- and I know many of my classmates have likewise experienced- in deciding whether to enter management consulting is the ability to balance your work and personal life. We've all heard the stories of consultants spending endless nights living in hotel rooms and on flights, but we don't often get to hear the other perspective of how people make it work. I had the opportunity to have lunch with Jim, Dean Olian, and a group of Anderson professors and students afterwards, where more intimate questions about work/life balance were posed. Jim spoke about how he would block off time on Fridays and Saturdays to coach his kids' baseball and soccer teams; it was his way of staying connected with his family. In the end, it's about blocking off time for the things that are most important. When Jim plans his week, he clearly blocks off the time he spends with his family first, and works around that to construct his busy schedule.

I'll be the incoming president of SOMA next year, and really hope to be able to bring more speakers and industry leaders like Jim on campus next year.

Student Spotlight: Kyle Briscoe

This post is a part of the Student Spotlight series where we highlight a current Anderson student and learn about his/her experience at Anderson. We will also get to hear about the student's favorite Anderson memories and advice for current and prospective MBA students.

Kyle Briscoe grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, where he lived a somewhat stereotypical Texas life: assisting on the family ranch and running his own lawn care business for six years. He then attended Yale University, where he majored in Architecture with a concentration in design and conducted independent research in sustainability. While studying architecture, he became fascinated with the technology tools he used to create models and manage projects. His interest in technology led him to co-found a cloud computing startup, called Cloud Spectator, which provides IaaS cloud performance benchmarking and consulting for enterprises and cloud providers. Though he left the startup, it still continues today. Kyle then took his newly discovered interest in marketing strategy to the Stanford University Office of Undergraduate Admission, where he spent four years as an Assistant Director of Admissions, creating an integrated marketing communications strategy and comprehensive digital marketing strategy. He is now a first-year student at UCLA Anderson School of Management, where he is completing the Marketing track and the Easton Technology Leadership Certificate. He chose Anderson because of its collaborative environment and strong technology management curriculum. Kyle will complete his summer internship at Microsoft working as a Product Marketing Manager for Windows 10 & Windows devices.

 

What is your favorite club?

I have really enjoyed being a part of the Design For America chapter at Anderson. DFA is a national organization with chapters at 29 universities throughout the country. Each chapter consists of student teams who use design thinking (with educational resources provided by DFA) to solve local societal problems. In the past, our chapter of DFA has tackled education of youth with special learning needs and how to clean the atria of the Anderson complex without using expensive scaffolding. For the latter project, we got to fly drones inside Anderson. This year, we have also partnered with Gensler’s consulting team to create solutions for the workplace of the future. I have really enjoyed being a part of DFA because we have had excellent speakers lead workshops on design thinking throughout the year. As someone who is recruiting for technology product management, I have found exercising my design thinking skills to be very valuable to my professional development. My involvement with DFA came up in two different internship interviews as well. I am also very excited to be working with Gensler on reimagining the workplace of the future. Our project with Gensler will last about 10 weeks and will give us the chance to receive feedback and mentoring from design consulting experts that work with the most respected companies in the world. DFA provides us with a completely hands-on learning experience outside of the classroom. Next year, I will serve as the VP of External Affairs and continue identifying more case competition and speaker opportunities for the club.

 

Tell us about a case competition you have been involved in.

Early in my first year at Anderson, I competed with an all-star team in the Amazon Case Competition, a case competition sponsored by the High Tech Business Association (HTBA) for Anderson students. We had many teams compete (I believe over 100 students in total!). While I have been involved in multiple case competitions this year, this one stands out to me because it was a great learning experience. I was unsure of differences between a product marketing manager (PMM) and a product manager (PM), which are two common MBA roles in the technology industry, before this competition. Participating helped me to truly understand the role of a PM. Our task was to act as the product manager for the Amazon Fire TV and to add new features to the product that would expand its market share in the TV set top device market. While our team did not win the competition (which included some awesome gadget prizes and a guaranteed interview with Amazon), we had a lot of fun coming up with our product features and learning more about Amazon’s culture. I did eventually get an interview with Amazon, and I think this case competition helped me a great deal in understanding Amazon’s unique culture and approach to work. Another great aspect of this case competition is that it was a very quick 24-hour competition. Some of the competitions in which I have participated have lasted for weeks and can really become a time suck when you’re trying to balance classes, social activities, and recruiting. For the Amazon competition, we got to hunker down as a team, order some Chinese food, and work into the night with lots of laughter and fun. It was a great way to strengthen bonds with my new classmates.

 

Describe your Anderson experience in one sentence.

Anderson has been pleasantly challenging, has transformed me for the better, and has opened many doors that I never imagined would be possible (one word: Microsoft).

 

What has been your favorite thing about Anderson?

Let’s not sugar coat things—business school is hard. You will have to juggle many demands for your time between academics, student clubs, social activities, and recruiting. You will also be surrounded by some exceptionally bright and driven people who may have expertise in things you’ve never heard of. Though there will be times when you will question why you’re spending tons of money to put yourself through such a rigorous experience, at Anderson you can always fall back on your section for support. We share success and we do not compete against each other. My awesome section has kept me sane and made this experience fun and light-hearted as much as possible. We have our own chat group and help each other laugh and commiserate over that torturous problem set or case reading. We also celebrate each other in many ways. Whenever a section member wins a case competition or is elected to a new role, we celebrate it. Whenever someone has a birthday, we buy them breakfast using our section funds. At least twice a month, someone in our section hosts a potluck dinner at their apartment for up to 20 students and their family members. Even when things are super busy, these dinners are always well attended and give us a chance to catch up outside of school or happy hours. I couldn’t ask for a better section to provide me strength, courage, and patience throughout this MBA experience. The best section at Anderson is Section C—or Section Chill as we call ourselves—and I hope that you are only so lucky to be as close to your section as I am.