Alumni

Alumni News in This Issue

• Executive MBAs Examine Global Business Issues at Symposium
• BB&T Corp. CEO and Chairman of the Board Speaks on Leadership and Values
• Duke Energy's Vice President of Diversity and Employee Development to Address MBA Graduation

Career Corner by John Worth

Marketing Yourself and Your Career

"My career is not advancing the way I want it to."

"I like my company, but I can't seem to get the company to realize that I can do more than I'm doing in my current job."

Sound familiar? I have heard similar statements from several alumni and current EMBA students in my first month on the job. Obviously, you decided to obtain an MBA to increase your knowledge of business and move your career in a new direction. So why aren't things going according to plan?

First, you need to accept a radical thought: An MBA will not advance your career. The skills and knowledge you gain and can demonstrate will advance your career. Here are a few thoughts and suggestions that can help:

• Identify ways in which you have differentiated yourself from your peers and/or colleagues. Have you been promoted quicker than the norm? Have you been selected for any choice assignments or especially visible roles? Have you developed new skills in your current role or from your MBA that could add more value to your department or company? Make a list of these answers and discuss them with your manager before or during your next performance discussion.
• Actively participate in committees and task forces to which you are assigned. Like many people, you might have participated passively when working on committees that were not directly related to your job. While this might be understandable, it represents a lost opportunity to demonstrate new skills and show that you can contribute in ways outside of your current role.
• Utilize your performance review to show how you can add additional value and contribute more. Develop an action plan that addresses any areas in need of improvement and that leverages your areas of strength. Request follow-up meetings to discuss potential new tasks to be added, and be sure the results of these discussions are added to your next review. Putting these discussions in writing can demonstrate your initiative and make your ideas more difficult to ignore.
• Get to know people outside your immediate department or office. Learning about what other people do and how other departments are structured can help you better understand your company and give you better insights into projects and assignments. It also can help you be in the "right place at the right time" should an opening arise that interests you.
• Come to terms with your company's culture and office politics. Recognize that no two company cultures are identical. In what kind of environment do you function best? Does your company operate on a "face time" culture or are people judged purely on their contributions? Does it vary by individual managers' supervisory styles? Attempting to force a square peg into a round hole can be counterproductive for everyone. Seek out managers whose styles are compatible with yours. Active networking and increased communication can help you accomplish this.

I hope these thoughts and suggestions are helpful. Remember: you need to manage your career, not let your career manage you. Please do not hesitate to contact me at or 919.962.5608 if you have specific questions or concerns. I am here for you!

Items of Interest

• Alumni awards honor Kenan-Flagler's finest
• Reunion Weekend 2004 Scheduled - mark your calendars
• Reunion Weekend 2003 a big success
• Fall Receptions showcased new Dean
• Find out about Upcoming Alumni Events
• Regional Alumni Clubs are a great way to stay informed and involved

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Alumni News

Executive MBAs Examine Global Business Issues at Symposium

Executive MBAs will examine the changing world of business and globalization at UNC Kenan-Flagler's Executive Business Symposium April 30-May 2.

Business, faculty and alumni speakers will provide valuable perspectives on global business. Robert "Tim" McGee, senior vice president and chief economist of U.S. Trust, will offer a global economic update. Executive MBA (EMBA) alumni and students also will explore topics such as sustainable enterprise, women in business, personal financial planning and investment strategies. UNC Kenan-Flagler's John Worth, the new director of alumni and Executive MBA career development, will lead a panel on career management strategies. (Worth writes a monthly e-newsletter column called "Career Corner.")

J.T. "Ted" Childs Jr., senior vice president of global workforce diversity at IBM, is the Friday night keynote speaker. Childs has worldwide responsibility for workforce diversity programs and policies at IBM.

Bob Ingram, vice chairman of pharmaceuticals at GlaxoSmithKline, is the keynote speaker for Saturday's events. Ingram began his career in the pharmaceutical industry as a professional sales representative and rose through a series of roles with increasing responsibility to become CEO and chairman of GlaxoWellcome. He co-led the merger and integration that formed GlaxoSmithKline.

The event is made possible through a class gift given by the Weekend and Evening EMBA classes of 2003 and 2002.

"The symposium speakers are extremely impressive and bring a wealth of experiences and insights to share. We hope as many alumni as possible will take advantage of this unique opportunity," said Heather Engen (EMBA '03), manager, ICO Global Implementation for the IBM Personal Computing Division.

"The symposium provides a great opportunity to learn, network and catch up with classmates all in one event," added Jim Toscano (EMBA '03), purchasing manager for Lord Corporation.

BB&T Corp. CEO and Chairman of the Board Speaks on Leadership and Values

Acting with integrity is not a sacrifice - it's critical to long-term success, John A. Allison IV (BSBA '71), CEO and chairman of the board of BB&T Corp., shared with students in Professor Bob Adler's MBA ethics class on March 18.

"At BB&T, our values enable us to achieve our mission and corporate purpose. In the day-to-day heat of life, having the right values doesn't necessarily guarantee success, but it does improve the probability," Allison said.

BB&T, headquartered in Winston-Salem, is a fast-growing, highly profitable financial holding company with more than $90.5 billion in assets. Its bank subsidiaries operate more than 1,350 branch offices in the Carolinas, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Georgia, Maryland, Tennessee, Alabama, Indiana, Florida and Washington, D.C.

The company has had a number of successful acquisitions, but BB&T considers each opportunity within the context of its 10 core values, said Allison, a UNC Phi Beta Kappa graduate.

"We figure out why an acquisition would be good for us, but also why it would be good for the other company. If it's not going to be good for them, too, we don't want to do it. Every time we've completed an acquisition, we've always kept our agreements," said Allison, whose talk also was attended by UNC philosophy students. In 2002, the BB&T Charitable Foundation made a $1 million grant to UNC's department of philosophy to allow students to consider the role of capitalism in society from a moral perspective.

BB&T's culture is built around 10 primary values that are consistent and integrated:

• reality (fact-based)
• reason (objectivity)
• independent thinking
• productivity
• honesty
• integrity
• justice (fairness)
• pride
• self-esteem (self-motivation)
• teamwork (mutual supportiveness)

"We hire 600-plus graduates out of colleges and universities each year. Almost all are fairly successful, but some are more successful because they learn from their experiences better than others," Allison said. "Why do people not learn from their experiences? Because to learn from your mistakes, you have to admit you made them."

Duke Energy's Vice President of Diversity and Employee Development to Address MBA Graduation

Richard T. "Stick" Williams (BSBA '75), vice president of diversity and employee development for Duke Energy, will address UNC Kenan-Flagler MBA students at graduation May 9 at 7 p.m. in the Dean E. Smith Center.

Williams is responsible for providing enterprise leadership and consultation for diversity initiatives, policies and practices; and for identifying and developing high-potential people for new opportunities or broader experience with the company.

Williams joined Duke Power, a business unit of Duke Energy in 1979 as a financial analyst. After a series of promotions, in 2002, Williams was named vice president of diversity and business ethics, initiatives, policies and practices and served as compliance officer for the corporation. He was named to his current position in 2004.

A native of Greensboro, N.C., Williams is chairman of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill board of trustees. He also chairs the UNC-Chapel Hill Foundation and Endowment Fund boards of directors. He is past chair of the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce, the UNC-Chapel Hill General Alumni Association and the UNC-Chapel Hill board of visitors.

UNC Kenan-Flagler BSBA and PhD students will participate in the University's commencement ceremony May 9 at 9:30 a.m. in Kenan Stadium. Julius Chambers, a 1962 UNC law school alum, pioneering civil rights attorney and former chancellor of N.C. Central University, will deliver the keynote address.

MAC students will graduate May 7 at 6 p.m. in the business school's Maurice J. Koury Auditorium. The keynote speaker is Ed Trott (BSBA '67), a board member of the Financial Accounting Standards Board.