Jim Bradford

Second Round Talks with Nissan

December 21, 2006: Nashville, TN

Several Owen professors – Bill Christie, Joe Blackburn, Dick Daft and Steve Hoeffler – joined me and Tim Pierce, Owen’s Director of Sales for Executive Programs, in calling on executives at Nissan’s new North America headquarters here in Nashville. You may recall that I visited Nissan’s Tokyo HQ in late November. This second meeting was set up to talk with North American management about securing internships and post-graduate jobs for Owen students and to discuss educational programs for Nissan executives.

The visit in Tokyo combined with information provided by our recent guest speaker, Dominique Thormann (Nissan’s Senior Vice President of Administration and Finance), served as perfect advance preparation for this meeting. Like our calls at Dell and GE, we came ready for an engaged discussion, but were unsure of what we would hear. I’m happy to report that it was all positive.

We met with Dominique and other Senior Vice Presidents of Manufacturing, HR and Total Customer Satisfaction; all are eager to engage with our students and work with Owen and Vanderbilt in other ways. I was happy to hear from Dominique that he thoroughly enjoyed his time at Owen; he commented several times on the warm reception he received from his hosts (Owen’s Japan Business Club) and the students who attended his presentation.

So the opportunity is ours for the making. If you are a student who is reading this and are interested in working as an intern or full time for Nissan, please let the Career Management Center know of your interest. Or, feel free to write to me.

 

 

You'll recognize Professors Blackburn, Christie, Hoeffler, Daft and me.  Others appearing in picture are Dominique Thormann (Finance and Administration), Bill Kruger (Manufacturing), Doug Betts (Customer Satisfaction), Greg Kelly (HR) and Kim Davenport (Talent Management). Tim Pierce is behind the camera.

Visit to Dell - Round Rock, TX

December 13: Round Rock, Texas

Dell: A $60-billion giant, #1 computer market share worldwide. A Vanderbilt team converges on Round Rock with two major purposes in mind. First: jobs – careers at the world’s leading, lowest-cost producer of computers and computer-related equipment with a global footprint and a history of success. I want Vanderbilt to be a core recruiting school for Dell. Second: to strengthen an existing link with Dell that would result in the Owen School and the greater Vanderbilt University becoming intellectual partners and resources for Dell worldwide.

With me are Senior Associate Dean Joe Blackburn who has worked with Dell in the past on supply chain issues; Assistant Dean Neta Moye, here to discuss leadership development; Peter Veruki, Director of Corporate Relations for Owen; Cheryl Chunn, from Vanderbilt’s Corporate & Foundation Relations; and Associate Provost Howard Sanders on behalf of the four undergraduate programs at Vanderbilt. We’ve been invited by two executives from Dell, Nashville, Scott Shillington and Elisabeth Zemokowski. As the day progresses, it is clear that Dell headquarters is interested in our MBA program and finding just the right and most talented people for their global efforts. Key hires will be in finance, marketing and HOP and we are offered two to three internships for summer 2007.

We have the full attention of senior management, from CEO Kevin Rollins (whom I had previously met), Paul McKinnon (Global HR VP) and many others. We begin the planning for a Dell Day on the Owen campus in the spring which will feature senior Dell executives as well as our alumni.

Neta Moye and Joe Blackburn play key roles during the visit, emphasizing the intellectual horsepower Vanderbilt and Owen possess as they discuss leadership needs, career advancement, supply chain and operations. Naturally we emphasize many of our areas of expertise as Dell's talent and lifelong learning needs are discussed. We get a plant tour of one of the three 250,000 sq. foot assembly plants located side-by-side at Round Rock (sorry, no pictures allowed).

Peter Veruki has invited our Owen alumni to a post-work reception and many come by the hotel to say hello. We have more than 30 Owen alums (and many more Vanderbilt alumni) at Dell, many holding key positions in the company. They express high satisfaction with their careers.

So, if you are an Owen student reading this and interested in working at Dell, let the Career Management Center know. We will make sure your resume gets in the right hands.

 

The Vanderbilt/Owen team outside of Dell headquarters in Round Rock. The building's architecture is unusual. It was patterned after the desktop graphics for Windows Vista.

 

 

Dell CEO Kevin Rollins and yours truly in the Executive Suite.

 

  Football is BIG here.

Downtown Round Rock.