Wal-Mart COO Kicks Off MBA 50th Celebration
Storrs, CT (10/26/2007) - "Seek out new experiences and things that are not the norm."That's the message William S. Simon delivered in an October 13, 2007 keynote speech highlighting a daylong celebration of the 50th anniversary of UConn's MBA program.
| "Each of us looks at which points we went in a different direction," said Simon, Chief Operating Officer of Wal-Mart Stores Inc and UConn MBA graduate '88 MBA. "These will be the most rewarding, the most impactful and likely the most difficult choices." More than 500 students, faculty and graduates registered for the golden anniversary event at Storrs, which included campus tours, reunion and career development activities, a forum on UConn Women MBAs and a chance to meet P. Christopher Earley, the new Dean of the School of Business. In his Theodore R. Rosenberg and Mary F. McVay keynote address, entitled "Swimming Upstream" (one of Sam Walton's principles for success), Simon drew parallels between the Wal-Mart founder, who built his business empire by "selling a lot and taking a lot less margin" and two Connecticut farmers, Charles and Augustus Storrs, who in 1881 offered $5,000 and 170 acres to the state for a vocational agricultural school. The General Assembly accepted their offer, creating the precursor to the university. "They decided to go in a different direction," Simon said. So has Simon, who thanked UConn for "teaching me the value of trying the untested and embracing the new." |  View photos from the event View Bill Simon video |
After graduating from UConn in 1981 with an economics degree, Simon joined the navy and stayed in the reserves, learning "incredible leadership and personal discipline." He worked in sales and marketing at PepsiCo, Nabisco, Dr Pepper and Diageo, where he played a major role in developing and introducing "Smirnoff Ice." After veering off into politics, as Florida governor Jeb Bush's Secretary of the Florida Department of Management Services, Simon headed the Global Markets Business Unit at Brinker International. He joined Wal-Mart in March, 2006, and is credited with creating and launching the retail giant's $4 generic prescription drug plan.
Simon said his inspiration for the concept came from pondering why it was so much cheaper to sell bananas than prescription drugs. And he drew applause when he said the $4 plan has "removed $610 million from the cost of health care."
Packaging promoting "environmental sustainability" is a top priority for Simon, who said his efforts have led to smaller bottles of more concentrated laundry detergent and to straight noodles in Hamburger Helper boxes, reducing packaging by 20 percent.
Simon also is spearheading the introduction of medical clinics in Wal-Mart stores (78 so far) "in coordination with community health systems"… "where someone with a strep throat can been seen immediately and at a fair price."
Asked during the question and answer period to respond to critics' charges that Wal-Mart does not foster career development, Simon replied, "Our store managers and district managers are 75 percent homegrown."
He conceded not all ideas have been winners, saying Wal-Mart "could not make our business model work" in Germany, and the company withdrew an application for an international banking license after "it got tied up in federal banking committees."
Simon urged his audience to "collect experiences" and take jobs "where you think you can get something and give something."
Before accepting a position, Simon said, he makes a list of "five things I want to get out of the experience." He periodically updates the list but when he can’t add or subtract items, he knows "it’s time to move on."
Acknowledging he'd made a few mistakes along the way, Simon said, "I believe if you try and focus, you can accomplish anything."
Before Simon's keynote address, Earley, the incoming business school dean, gave the audience a preview of his plans.
"We want to be a global institution," he said, adding part of his growth strategy involves "ramping up" the executive MBA program and launching a "specialized risk management" program in Stamford.
Noting graduates are "one of the most important sources of support" for the MBA program, and that "there have been 12,000 graduates over 50 years," Earley advised those in the room to "take away from this event a renewed enthusiasm for your own institution" and "spread the word."
The 50th MBA festivities coincided with homecoming weekend events, including a parade, ice cream social and men's and women's basketball teams practice sessions.
Among the alumni marking the MBA milestone was John Flint, one of 16 members of the first graduating class of 1959.
Flint recalls the three-year program, which began in 1957 at the Hartford campus, was the "only one in Connecticut where you could work and take classes at night."
The MBA "helped me very directly," he said, resulting in a promotion to a position managing commercial properties for Connecticut General Life Insurance (now CIGNA).
Over the years UConn has expanded the MBA program, which currently offers full-time, part-time and executive MBA courses at the Storrs, Hartford, Stamford and Waterbury campuses.
UConn Women MBAs Feted
UConn women MBAs have come a long way since 1957.
During the recent 50th anniversary celebration of UConn’s MBA program, a select group of women MBAs, past and present, gathered for a special luncheon to honor and focus on the accomplishments of women in business. Among other things, the crowd learned that the first six women MBAs graduated in 1961, 101 of the 307 graduates in 2007 (33%) were female and that the UConn MBA program has been outperforming the national trend for the last five years, with nearly 38 percent of the class being women.
"Today is a celebration of women MBA's" said Lucy Gilson, associate professor of management at the UConn School of Business and event moderator. "As I look around I realize that I am in a room that is filled to capacity and then some, with women who either have or are pursuing an MBA at UConn – it’s really very exciting!"
Sponsored in part by Travelers Insurance and the UConn Chapter of the National Association of Women MBAs (NAWMBA), several graduates spoke during the luncheon about how their MBA experiences and how their time at UConn had prepared them for their careers.
Dee Bouffard '76 MBA, forecasting manager for Perot Systems Healthcare Services, reminisced about how she was lucky to find two other women in her class while at UConn. However, she went on to say that her UConn training taught her how to survive in jobs predominantly held my males, such as one of her assignments in the deep South where she was the "wrong gender, wrong accent and wrong religion!"
In the days before computers, Anne McAloon '74 MBA recalled hours pounding out papers on the keys of a manual typewriter. Now a principle analyst at the state of Connecticut's Legislative Program Review and Investigation Committee, McAloon said the MBA program taught her to examine problems, identify issues and find creative solutions in her personal and professional life.
Following graduation, most of her classmates moved to Boston and New York but Karen Leyton '90 MBA chose to begin her career with a start up company. She remembers fondly that first interview took place at the Friendly's just off campus in Storrs on Rte. 195. Not afraid to roll up her sleeves and willing to do whatever was necessary to reach the team’s goal, forgoing offices and titles, Karen is now the Chief Operating Officer of Technical Language Services, a company that translates documents in more than 70 languages.
Lisa Labenski '04 MBA, recently promoted to the position of assistant controller for Pratt & Whitney is the only female executive on the Pratt & Whitney Finance team. However, she is not intimidated to walk into a room of men because of what she learned at UConn, "how to think and communicate with anyone."
While it may have been empowering for most in attendance to meet some of the women who have forged a path for today's women MBAs, it was still just as disappointing to hear that women continue to earn 80 cents on the male dollar.
"Although women are making progress in business, we continue to face barriers in climbing the corporate ladder, including salary differentials. Unfortunately, improvements will happen slowly until more women get into the MBA pipeline and begin to initiate change from within the world's leading companies," said Amanda Wallace '07 MBA, Executive Development Consultant at MassMutual.
"Let's keep encouraging our friends, colleagues at work, sisters, and daughters to enter the ranks of women with MBAs," adds Gilson. "We still have a lot of catching up to do!"
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