Day 10: Part 1

Day 10. June 4, 2007

Our day began with a coach’s breakfast meeting at our hotel. The Accelerator teams meet to assign roles for each team member for the FedEx project. Once team roles were assigned, we proceeded to the bus to depart for FedEx World Headquarters (www.fedex.com).

We arrived at the FedEx at 8:30 AM. We were directed to the auditorium to launch the FedEx project. The initial FedEx remarks were made by Karen Rogers, VP of Global Marketing; Michael Dones and Chris Douglass. This team has challenged our Accelerator team to build a loyalty program for small businesses (1-99 employees) that encompasses the entire FedEx and FedEx Kinko’s brand.

The FedEx staff were great hosts to Vanderbilt’s Accelerator 2007 group. Our teams did breakout sessions in the afternoon to organize their project plan for FedEx, confirm team roles, evaluate the data, and brainstorm ideas for innovation. We headed out of FedEx at 5:00 PM to the hotel for a quick change prior to the Baseball game – we’re going to see the Memphis Redbirds tonight.

Day 9: Road Trip to Memphis

Day 9. June 3, 2007

Ah, it’s Sunday - Accelerator team members were able to have the morning off. The coaches, Carol and I arrived about 10:30 and began our prep for the trip – by noon, the charter bus was parked in front of McGill hall to load everyone for the road trip to Memphis.

We loaded all our supplies and luggage for 56 people in about 20 minutes.

...to digress for just a moment – it’s interesting to see the variety of what young people pack for a 2 day trip. Some had a simple suit bag and a small duffle. One individual had 3 pieces of luggage, a computer bag and a pillow. Most of the Accelerator participants were equipped with iPods and energy drinks...

On the ride to Memphis, we introduced the project for FedEx (www.fedex.com). The teams will be working to develop a service and loyalty program for small businesses. The winning team will visit the FedEx flight simulators. What an opportunity!

We arrived in Memphis about 5:00 PM, unloaded the bus, and checked into the Homewood Suites (www.homewoodsuites.com) in Germantown, TN. Everyone had about 30 minutes to get settled in, then we were off to the famous Corky’s (www.corkysbbq.com) for the famous dish of Memphis: BBQ! We ended the evening with a birthday song for Michael Gottfried and a giant cookie cake.

Day 8: Part 3

Day 8. June 2, 2007

The final event of the day was a team feedback session at my home. Accelerator teams arrived via charter bus. Each team member evaluated all other team members regarding their perceived performance on the MAPCO project and then shared their feedback verbally with other members of the team. For many, this was their first such experience – a significant personal growth opportunity.

Accelerator teams also provided the staff feedback on their 1st week of Accelerator. We ended the day with a meal and a discussion of experiences thus far in Accelerator.

Tomorrow, we depart for Memphis to launch projects there for 2 partner companies. The teams ended our first week to 105.5 total work hours. Tomorrow we begin Week 2.

Day 8: Part 2

Day 8. June 2, 2007

At 11:00 AM, we boarded everyone on the charter bus and headed to Adelphia Stadium – home of the Tennessee Titans. Participants were divided into 5 new teams and each team was given 2 pages of “clues” for landmarks in downtown Nashville and a digital camera. Their objective: to solve the “riddles” on the clue sheet and make their picture at that landmark.

Certain landmark pictures are worth more points than others due to the degree of difficulty of the riddle and the location of the landmark. The teams had until 4:00 PM to gather as many pictures as possible and return to McGill Hall for check in. Each team had team t-shirts. From a rooftop vantage point, the Accelerator staff tracked the teams’ progress in gathering clues as they passed over the pedestrian bridge into Riverfront Park through downtown Nashville and to Vanderbilt.

The weather was reasonably cooperative until the last 20 minutes of the competition when a heavy rain soaked a few of the teams remaining.

Day 8: Part 1

Day 8. June 2, 2007

We served breakfast at 7:00 AM today. Accelerator team members are a bit tired (yesterday was a big day). Today will be a mixture of class and fun, which will help.

At 8:00 AM, we proceeded to Owen classroom 222 for a session on Business Ethics with Dr. Bart Victor. The conversation was lively. In his usual engaging style, the Dr. Victor led the teams in thinking about the driver of company ethical performance – our own personal ethics.

After a quick break, David Franklin from Philips Medical spoke to the Accelerator teams about his experiences both at GE and Philips Medical in building business relationships and managing a sales process. He spoke to the opportunity costs of failed relationships. Lots of Q&A with the Accelerator teams.

Day 7: MAPCO Presentations & American Airlines Project Launch

Day 7. June 1, 2007

At 7:00 AM our Accelerator teams joined executives from 25 businesses for a Business Breakfast Social. Participating companies included Avondale Partners, Axis Accounting, Caterpillar Financial, Centerfield Advisors, DDM, Forba Holdings, Ingram Barge, General Mills, Healthways, Healthcare Realty Trust, LBMC, Pinnacle Financial Partners, Raymond James, Stifford Video, Wachovia, Vanderbilt University and Websults.

At 8:00 AM, we proceeded to the Averbuch auditorium for Accelerator team presentations. Each team had 10 minutes for its presentation to MAPCO, a division of Delek US Holdings (www.delekus.com). Using PowerPoint and Storyboard followed by 5 minutes of Q&A, each Accelerator team presented their proposed recommendations to five MAPCO executives. By 9:30 AM, each team had presented and responded to Q&A. The MAPCO executive panel deliberated for about 10 minutes and then announced the winning teams.

The first place team was Team 4 (DeBenigno, Carroll, Gunn, McGuire, Smith-Mui, Nordholm, Peterson, Klaeveman and Fettig). Each member of the team received a $100 gas card from MAPCO. The second place team was Team 3 (Watson, Gottfried, Grumney, McGill, Shafer, C.Carpenter, Kierstead, Puchon and Agostino). Each member of the team received a $50 gas card from MAPCO. The third place team was Team 1 (Moreno, Fox, M.Carpenter, Bowling, Mayer, Black, O’Brien, Bernard, and Oetting). Each member of the team received a $25 gas card from MAPCO.

All teams did a very impressive job for MAPCO. I had the opportunity to spend some time with the MAPCO executives at the end of the session. They expressed their amazement at the progress the Accelerator teams had made in 7 days (the project was launched this past Saturday).

By 10:45, we were in the classroom with Ms. Cherrie Clark to evaluate and discuss consulting tools that will be useful in our current Lexus and upcoming American Airlines projects. After a quick lunch, Dr. Dave Owens hosted a studio on “innovative thinking” to prepare for our upcoming project with American Airlines.

At 2:00 PM, members of the American Airlines team (www.aa.com) arrived at the Owen Graduate School to launch our project for their airline (Rob Britton – Advisor to the Chairman of American Airlines; Chris Koller and Boyce Adams – a recent Vanderbilt graduate and a new member of the AA team).

We launched this project for American Airlines with a new Accelerator team rotation. As of today, Accelerator participants are now juggling 3 different projects: 2 with their original team (Lexus and Gomez Photography) and a new one with a second team (American Airlines). We worked on American Airlines till 6:00 PM.

After dinner, the teams met for a working session on the Lexus project. Given it’s Friday, we ended the day a little early - the teams only clocked 13 work hours today, bringing our first week to 93.5 total work hours. Tomorrow we will conclude Week 1.

Day 6: Gomez Project Launch

Day 6. May 31, 2007

At 7:00 AM, teams were doing “dry runs” of their presentations for MAPCO tomorrow. We began Day 6 with a session on Innovation lead by Dr. Owens. The teams focused on factors that constrain innovation and the process of innovation.

At 9:30 AM, we loaded the bus and headed off to our next big adventure – the launch of Project 3 – Gomez Photography (www.gomezphotography.com). As we arrived, the Accelerator teams walked into the middle of a swimsuit photo shoot – a male model was reclined on a motorcycle – female model was in the makeup chair. Michael Gomez (Nashville photographer of the stars) spoke to our 5 Accelerator teams about his company. His business has grown solely by “word of mouth.” Gomez has challenged the teams to help him develop a strategy to expand his brand and enhance his client mix with additional “lifestyle” clients.

In the middle of the launch, Gomez selected 2 of our Accelerator participants – Meg Clayton and Emanuel Gunn – for an impromptu photo shoot. Both young people were put in the makeup artists chair and then set up for photos. Emanuel was set up in a cell phone ad photo shoot, Meg in both a coffee and a retail clothing ad. I’ll post both pictures tomorrow.

Over a working lunch, the teams met to assign their team roles and set up their strategy.

Team 1 (Moreno, Fox, Carpenter, Bowling, Mayer, Black, O’Brien, Bernard, Oetting) selected Travis for their team lead on this project. Team 2 (Patton, Taylor, Lindsay, Reese, Ledlow, Clayton, Dornfeld, Jaimes and Sindel) selected Lauren for their team lead on this project.

Team 3 (Watson, Gottfried, Grumney, McGill, Shafer, Carpenter, Kierstead, Puchon, Agostino) selected Mark for their team lead on this project. Team 4 (DeBenigno, Carroll, Gunn, McGuire, Smith-Mui, Nordholm, Peterson, Klaevemen, Fettig) selected Charlie for their team lead on this project. Team 5 (Reif, Taylor, Zhang, Kemph, Hennessey, Smith, Aro, Denman, Daugherty) selected Burleson for their team lead on this project.

We returned to Owen for 2 follow up classes. The first was led by Kimberly Pace on how to build “Word of Mouth” marketing campaigns. The second was led by Cherrie Clark, formerly with Bain Consulting – covering the basics of being a consultant.

At 5:00 PM we did a briefing for tomorrow mornings business breakfast – we have 25 companies visiting Accelerator 2007 from 7:00 AM – 8:00 AM tomorrow. Students will be doing their elevator pitch tomorrow morning as they introduce themselves to these companies. They’ve been equipped with business cards, portfolios and bios on the visiting companies. This will provide an exceptional laboratory in which to practice meeting people in business, building relationships and making a first impression.

After a fast dinner, the teams returned to their Team rooms to finish assigning team roles for their Gomez project, Clarify the data on hand and begin market research. Speaking members of the team for MAPCO huddled to do final dry runs of their MAPCO presentations The teams clocked 15 work hours today. Thus far, we’ve clocked 80.5 work hours in six days. Tomorrow is a GIANT day – Business Breakfast, Presentations to MAPCO and a Fortune 100 Corporate visitor. Carol, Kristin and I sat through team dress rehearsals and turned off the 810 Café lights at 11:30 PM after the last team finished. Whew…