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Feature Fall 2009 Fall 2017 Winter 2005 Winter 2013
How Pivotal Experiences Change Us and Our Careers
I feel a deep sense of gratitude for Brigham Young University and its noble purpose. It has been at the very root of my conversion to the gospel and has laid the foundation for my private happiness and my professional progress.
The promised powers of incorporating data into decision-making read like an advertisement: Make decisions better, faster, and more accurately! Minimize uncertainty and maximize returns! Gain agility and accountability! Facilitate innovation and disruption in all the right ways!
Remember that bad acquisition? The one who couldn’t handle the office environment and left all dried up in the middle of busy season? Or that great candidate who needed a lot of attention but really brightened up the place? Acquiring the right office plant has a lot more to do with fit than with the color of your thumb. To cultivate a mutually beneficial working relationship, scan the résumés of these office plants for a skill set that aligns with your organization’s goals.
The stories I have chosen to tell are not easy for me to share. These are not my proudest moments, and I usually prefer to wear my confident, professional persona for public consumption.
Throughout my life I’ve spent countless summer weekends at my parents’ cabin in the Uinta Mountains, where in the early days there was no electricity or indoor plumbing and almost every evening was spent playing games around the kitchen table until the generator would run out of gas.
Cameras flashed as reporters jostled for position. This was the biggest story of the year: Kenneth Lay was surrendering to the FBI. Slapped with a slew of charges alleging he falsified statements to hide billions in losses, Lay’s arrest marked the end of Enron’s empire.
Last August I was at a landfill site in So Paulo, Brazil. It had been a dump where people sorted through garbage looking for valuable items so they could put food on their tables.
On 19 March 2009 BYU student Steve Hansen wasn’t in the Tanner Building atrium eating lunch with his peers. He wasn’t in Provo, in Utah, or even in the country. Hansen was across the Atlantic eating salmon and caviar with foreign dignitaries, government officials, and international investment CEOs at an invitation-only gala dinner at the Hotel de Paris in Monaco.
At Wal-Mart headquarters in Arkansas, Greg Chandler is holding a paperless meeting. Instead of handing out copies of his presentation, he flips open his laptop and turns it around. Rather than finishing the meeting in the office, Chandler invites his associate to join him on a walk outside. He makes sure he shuts off the lights on his way out.
Early in the semester of his supply chain strategy class, Stan Fawcett stands in front of his students with a fresh, yellow ear of corn in his hand.
I belong to a family that likes to put puzzles together. Mom and Dad were avid constructers. My sister and her husband frequently have a table in their living room with a puzzle underway. And my brother could search for hours to find a key piece.