Some people may shy away from the challenging and unpredictable, but not Gentry Davies. He has made a career out of solving tricky projections and analyzing future business opportunities. Now a senior director of product at Divvy, Davies credits his problem-solving abilities to his 2012 degree in strategy from the BYU Marriott School of Business.
Davies began to hone his problem-solving skills as a strategy student, sharing that his time in the strategy program taught him a structured approach to tackling complex problems that could apply to a wide range of topics. “I learned how to condense my thinking about problems down to concise, strong arguments, which has been valuable throughout my career,” he says. Davies is also grateful for the professional skills, such as business communication and résumé building, that he developed as a student.
During his time at BYU Marriott, Davies was also inspired by his classmates, many of whom were starting companies. Some even used their businesses for social impact. The inspiration Davies felt from seeing these successful ventures encouraged him to seek out jobs with businesses that were able to make a meaningful impact in people’s lives. While Davies did not know that finding a career with a higher purpose was what he wanted to do as an undergrad, he has noticed how BYU Marriott shaped him and his goals throughout the years. “In retrospect, BYU Marriott and the culture I was surrounded by was a perfect fit for me and matched the way I think,” he explains.
With his problem-solving skills in tow, Davies has worked for a variety of tech and software companies as a product manager. In his current role at Divvy, an expense management and budgeting software business, he analyzes future changes the company can bet on in hopes of improving their long-term business success. With his job, Davies experiences a fair amount of uncertainty as he attempts to make projections on future risks and their rewards. “I have fun solving tricky problems,” he says. “My whole career has been looking at chaos and then trying to make a structure to organize that chaos.”
“Having everyone at Divvy on board with my solutions is gratifying,” Davies continues. “My team being stoked about a problem is fun, especially when everyone is motivated to work together.”
As Davies has progressed throughout his career, he has considered how he can use his problem-solving skills to help others. He is inspired by companies that focus on doing good instead of just making a profit, hearkening back to his time at BYU Marriott when several of his classmates were laying the seeds for similar solutions-based companies. Now that he has nearly 10 years of industry experience, Davies hopes to one day start his own mission-focused company dedicated to social benefit.
“My wife and I are trying to identify where we think we can have a big impact,” he explains. “After graduation, I worked for Ancestry, where I helped people with family history. I later worked for an education company that used technology to make education better. These experiences helped me see how companies can positively impact people’s lives, so my wife and I are hoping to do something similar.”
Now living in Herriman, Utah, Davies looks forward to solving problems for the rest of his career, both at Divvy and anywhere else that makes an impact. “I would love to find more complex problems and help people in any way that I can,” he says.
_
Writer: Mike Miller
