Jason Whetstone has led an HR team of two for a company with 200 employees and an HR team of sixty for a company with 8,000. But regardless of the size of his role, he says that the critical thinking skills he developed during his MBA from the BYU Marriott School of Business have been key as he works to add value in both his professional and personal life.
“I really appreciated how much the professors would push us in terms of how we thought,” Whetstone says. “You can forget specific lines from a textbook, but having a strong understanding of how to adapt your thinking over time is evergreen.” Whetstone currently works as a vice president of human resources for Swire Coca-Cola, where he recruits prospective employees, helps them develop their skills, and ensures that they stay engaged.
Throughout his career, which has included previous roles at General Mills, Polaris, Clinical Innovations, and Nelson Laboratories, Whetstone says he has applied the problem-solving skills he developed during his MBA. “What’s important in any job is the ability to see around the corner—to think multiple moves ahead and execute in the present with an eye on the future.”
Whetstone notes that a good organization is made up of people who want to perform well and feel successful. Even in a company with a collaborative culture, it can be challenging to help people avoid the feeling that they have to compete with each other, Whetstone explains.
But he says that the team-focused nature of the MBA program prepared him for these kinds of challenges. “In an MBA, you’ve got to bring people who have valuable experiences and are all really smart and capable into alignment,” he says. “That really forced some development and growth.”
Whetstone has attempted to bring people into alignment at Swire by building an HR network at each plant. “Previously, we operated with a very centralized model, but when you put distance between you and the employee, that also makes it hard to trust,” he says. “We’ve been trying to build up trust in the organization by combating abstraction, making HR less of a title and more of a person. The network has made a difference in a lot of ways.”
This pattern of critical thinking, explains Whetstone, has helped him not only find professional success but also lead his family. “I want my kids to do the right thing, but I can’t tell them what the right thing is every time,” he says. “I need to be able to teach them how to think—I need to be able to help them work through problems in a way that they’re going to be able to replicate.”
So as Whetstone works through problems in his career, he sees it as a way to find success— professionally and personally. “Success for me has meant being able to give my family the experiences and the opportunities that set them up for success on their own,” he says. “That’s really important to me, and that is heavily influenced by BYU Marriott and the idea of educating and developing yourself as a whole person.”
