My Background.
I grew up in Lynnfield, MA, and went to Clarkson University in New York.
I graduated with a B.S. in Interdisciplinary Engineering and Management. The program was originally named Industrial Distribution, and was created because the University saw a need for a special type of salesman who, in addition to having sales and business skills, also had a very strong technical background. During my participation in the course, the University decided to change the name of the program to Interdisciplinary Engineering and Management because it wanted to put a greater emphasis on the business, operational, and management content that it offered.
Even though the University decided to rename the program to emphasize its management aspect, the program also has a very strong engineering component. Whether I am talking about mechanical stresses, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, or control system design, the program gave me a great technical education which I have retained to this day.
In 2003, I decided to pursue my MBA.
I went to the University of Phoenix because of it’s combination online / on-campus “Flexnet” program. This intensive MBA program was my program of choice because each six-week course had two on-campus weeks, with the intermediate four weeks done entirely on-line. This allowed me to maintain my travel schedule for work, and still develop the personal relationships with my teammates and professors. This program was a comprehensive MBA program, which emphasized a team-oriented learning environment.
MBA coursework included the “usual” courses like accounting, law, and marketing. However, there are some courses that I took a particular liking to. Statistics, for example, was a great way for me to use my mathematical and analytical mindset in a way that can be extremely useful in many business circumstances. I also enjoy economics and finance, which I use to learn more about how companies increase shareholder value and work within the macroeconomy. Organizational Behavior was a great way to learn more about the interaction between people (and groups of people) within a giving corporate culture, and this extends to the change management process (and why so many changes never “take hold” because of poor implementation). Business Strategy Formulation was probably my most useful and practical course when it comes to knowing how to run a company – determining a company’s strategy and long-term plans are the difference between a company that is successful today and one that is successful over the long term. And of course I thrived at Operations and Project Management because of my work background.
Outside of work,
I have been married for ten years and a 8-year old son who is the apple of my eye. We have made the decision to home-school our son, which has proven to be a fantastic decision to help him bloom into a wonderful child, despite the other sacrifices we’ve had to make as a family. I enjoy exercising daily, and try to stay active in winter basketball leagues. I also have a 40-year old car, originally purchased by my grandparents, which I have rebuilt and redesigned into an impressive, modern car.
My years in Sales have made a significant contribution to my Project Mangagement development. Since I fulfilled multiple roles in Sales over the hears, I learned that everything is a negotiation. Whether it is editing boilerplate text to demonstrate the particular value of a feature to a specific customer, finding ways to add perceived value for the customer as part of a final negotiation step, or presenting status updates during an installation to demonstrate the full value of the services being provided, they key is to make the customer feel they are receiving maximum value for their dollar spent.
Project management can contribute to a successful negotiation in various forms:
- Repeat orders,
- The ablility to negotiate a higher price on future orders,
- A willingness for customers to be a positive reference for other customers, and so on.