| Transitions: From the Corporate Ladder to the Garage – Kelly Watson – President and Founder, Career Partners – LMU EMBA Graduate 2006 |
I never saw myself as an entrepreneur. True, creating massive change in large corporations was always my passion, but, I found something comforting about the rustle of business suits, the whirr of copiers, and the hum of voices in cubicles. Or was it just that it was all already there. In my own business, I have had to build everything from scratch. There are no processes to reform, no procedures to unravel, and there is no corporate culture to navigate. I am completely out of my element. Yet each day I grow increasingly sure that Career Partners will be a success.
Career Partners is a new concept in the recruitment and talent management 
business. We use proprietary technology to match executives for joint-leadership roles and provide the ongoing organizational and personal support required to create lasting work teams. It’s a new twist on job-sharing, just for executives. Instead of losing great leaders when their work-life balance needs trump the 60-hour plus workweek required, companies can retain them with the ultimate work-life balance program. By combining the collaborative brain power, energy and complementary skills of two high-achieving individuals in a single role, companies gain built-in backup, incredible loyalty and their collaborative brainpower. Career Partners provides the support necessary to make this program successful for both individuals and their employers.
The idea for Career Partners came from a Harvard Business case study. Two women shared a leadership role at an investment bank and authored a case about how their shared personality traits and complementary skills made them an ideal match. They also illuminated the potential derailers they faced every day: the undermining by their peers, failed hand-off routines, and their own conflicting individual needs. It occurred to me that it might be possible to bottle the magic formula – a combination of personality matching technology, executive onboard support and ongoing coaching that would make these matches work – so it could be distributed world-wide.
The idea was, for me, a dream idea. Who couldn’t acknowledge the importance of great people in businesses and the need for new, creative ways to attract and retain the best talent? And, as a marketing executive and mother of three, I absolutely understand the pressures the corporate lifestyle can bring to families. However, the world is filled with great ideas. It takes entrepreneurs to create business, raise capital, mobilize believers and execute strategy. With my definitive corporate skill-set, it was difficult for me to see how I could begin to do this. Ultimately, it was when someone suggested I reframe the role of entrepreneur, not as a manager of a start-up risky new business, but rather as the catalyst of a massive change in the corporate workplace, that I was able to engage the idea. Now THAT resonates with me!
I would not have embarked upon this journey were it not for my experiences in the LMU EMBA program. With its personalized approach, the program facilitated a self-exploration process which, for me, uncovered weaknesses and highlighted strengths I didn’t know I had. It has allowed me to be a better guide of my own self-development as well as identified the importance of proactively building my personal network; choosing the voices I will hear and the strengths
I will draw upon all around me.
While honing my understanding of business concepts, I was also able to practice new leadership techniques within the safe environment of my cohort. I could fail, receive feedback and try again without the usual corporate repercussions. I learned to take incrementally greater risks and the rewards were enormous. And, as an entrepreneur, developing this higher risk threshold has been invaluable.
The most difficult part of my transition has been the changed reward system. In the corporate world, my efforts were rewarded with visible symbols; important title, big salary and a fancy office. In my garage, these icons are irrelevant. Again I reach into the toolkit the LMU EMBA provided. At LMU, we studied the successful tenure of the Jesuit order, a “business” which has survived for over 400 years. We considered their values-driven purpose, their never-ending focus on education and self development, and their commitment to serving others. To enter the order, Jesuit clergy must first undergo a series of rituals designed to help them let go of their past, their worldly possessions and their prejudices. It is believed that only by truly relinquishing these things can they open their minds and hearts to their future experiences. On my own journey, every day, I think about this as I shed what I now see are the limitations of my corporate experience and get increasingly comfortable in my own new skin.
Kelly Watson is the President and Founder of Career Partners, LLC.
If you would like to contact Kelly, you can email her at Kelly.Watson@theCareerPartners.com.
This article appeared in The Executive Educator a bi-monthly online newsletter produced by the LMU College of Business Administration. Click here to subscribe to the publication.
| From the First Floor to the Top Floor – Robert Villanueva - Manager, Public and Media Relations, Boeing Advanced Systems – LMU EMBA Graduate 2006 |
Shortly after receiving my Executive MBA from LMU, I started a new position at Boeing as the public and media relations manager for a new business unit called Advanced Systems. As the new growth engine of Boeing’s largest business group, Integrated Defense Systems, Advanced Systems is an entrepreneurial organization that draws from company and industry capabilities to develop solutions to capitalize on new growth market opportunities for Boeing.
So far, I’ve supported integrated marketing communications activities for various business groups within Advanced Systems; worked with our top business leaders — many of whom have MBAs — and literally am helping this business unit build itself from the ground up putting my EMBA education immediately to work. In almost all of the executive briefings I’ve attended, there was much MBA-level info discussed that without my EMBA I would have sat there dumbfounded wondering what I was looking at and what my executives were talking about.
What a joy it was to have seen what I’ve been learning about in the EMBA program such as time value of money calculations, scenario planning, internal/external environment assessment, financial statement analysis, statistical modeling, ethics and even BHAG!
My biggest accomplishment in my new role so far was supporting the recent win of a program called SBInet, which is the technology element of the Department of Homeland Security’s Secure Border Initiative. During this campaign, I got the opportunity to apply not only my public relations knowledge and experience, but also my EMBA knowledge that enabled me to work closely with my business development team.
I am experiencing two primary things in my new role that I learned in the EMBA program. First, the business model of big traditional companies operating entrepreneurially from within to compete is indeed happening, as my Advanced Systems unit is successfully executing this model. Second, it is not just a few courses of the EMBA program that are applicable to my job, it is the integration of everything from the program that is enabling me to approach and execute my role as a public relations professional in a new dynamic way.
I now sit on the top floor of the building where my business unit is based and where our president sits. I am on the leadership teams of all five businesses within Advanced Systems, and support some of the industry’s most accomplished and well known business leaders.
In his congratulatory note to me following my graduation from the LMU EMBA program, my public and media relations director said “OK Robert, let’s see what you can do for us.”
The LMU EMBA program has provided me the means to integrate new business knowledge into my profession to increase my value and capabilities offering, as well as enabling me to play a direct role in helping Boeing's Advanced Systems unit achieve its business objectives. I am truly grateful to my family, employer, classmates and faculty for their support of my EMBA education.
If you would like to contact Robert, you can email him at robert.s.villanueva@boeing.com
This article appeared in The Executive Educator a bi-monthly online newsletter produced by the LMU College of Business Administration. Click here to subscribe to the publication.
| Alumni Interview – Candace Kentopian, LMU EMBA Graduate 2003 |
Candace Kentopian is a seasoned marketing communications professional whose experience encompasses the full range of marketing disciplines. As an independent consultant, Candace has planned and executed strategic marketing campaigns on both a domestic and international front for a diverse client base, including the National Association of Television Program Executives, Succeeding in Music, KIIS-FM and the International Animated Film Society.
It was while serving as Marketing Director for Los Angeles real estate giant Trammell Crow Company that Candace seriously began focusing on the merits of pursuing an Executive MBA degree. “I had discussed the possibility with close family and friends and felt that the time was right for me. I looked at the top schools in the Los Angeles area and a number of key areas placed LMU ahead of the field.”
As part of her undergraduate studies, Candace attended the University of Innsbruck in Austria and, as such, “my interest in European business and culture made the international orientation of the program one of the deciding factors to apply. I was equally impressed with the sense of integrity and kindness that I experienced from everyone throughout the application process. I felt the school placed a real value on educating the individual in a well-balanced, supporting and innovative environment.”
Currently serving as Director of Communications for the Century City Chamber of Commerce, Candace displays the particular entrepreneurial spirit that defines so many of our successful graduates. Along with her husband Zohrab, the couple extended their love affair of all things floral by purchasing Jasmine's Garden, a flower shop in Los Feliz, at the same time that she started her EMBA. Much to the chagrin of her husband, the shop inevitably became the focus for a number of group projects, with the class descending on a regular basis to analyze sales, inventory control and CRM issues. These projects have contributed to a flourishing business that now reaches clients throughout Los Angeles and the United States, including A-list celebrities such as Barbra Streisand, Carmen Electra and Charlize Theron.
Candace reflects, “The EMBA program was a real investment in me and my career. It was a dynamic learning experience with a group of talented peers and instilled in me the confidence and leadership skills to deal with diverse situations, people and the inevitable challenges in my professional life.”
Candace Kentopian can be contacted by email at candace@centurycitycc.com or by phone at 323.953.8899
This interview appeared in The Executive Educator a bi-monthly online newsletter produced by the LMU College of Business Administration. Click here to subscribe to the publication.