Student Road Diaries

Week in Silicon Valley 2007

Day 1:
We started our day bright and early at Yahoo, where we were paired up with students from another top Ivy League b-school. As soon as we got there, the students from the other school thought that we were in their class! It was then that we realized how lucky we were to be at the Johnson School, where everybody knows your name:. Once all the confusion was cleared, we were treated to a presentation about Yahoo's new customer-centric organizational structure that will allow them to take on their competition. Then we were met by Lee Clancy '98, Ed Wang '06 and two alums from the other school for an alumni panel discussion. Finally, we were given a tour of Yahoo's impressive campus - a very nice place to work indeed!

Next, we made our way to HP where we were greeted by Eric Morales '01, Kurt Hetzel '96, Mittal Parekh '06 and Ray Ernenwein '96. After a sumptuous Italian lunch (pizza, pasta, and desert - the works!), Gary Elliott, VP Marketing, gave us a very interesting presentation about HP and its future strategy to become the world's leading IT company. After the all important presentation about how to apply for jobs at HP, we had a panel discussion with our alumni who represented most post-MBA functions within HP (Finance, Marketing, Supply Chain and Services).

After HP, we made our way to Spansion - the world's largest flash memory Flash Memory provider to top Mobile Phone, Consumer Electronics and Automobile Manufacturers. We were warmly received by Jeremy Werner '00 (EE) and James Pak '91 (MEng) and treated to a presentation about Spansion's operations. After this background presentation, we donned bunny suits and were given a tour of the FAB! After this mind opening tour James Doran, COO, gave us a presentation about Spansion's future strategy to de-commoditize their product line by focusing on Customer Solutions instead of cost by byte.

There was more excitement to come!

That evening we visited Plug and Play Tech Center, a startup incubator founded by investors who struck it rich by investing in PayPal. After an excellent Middle Eastern buffet paired with fine wine, we were given a tour of the facilities. There are over 100 startups in industries ranging from Web 2.0 to Clean Tech to Software. Finally, we were greeted by Johnson alums who are CEOs of companies housed at Plug and Play - Michael Masnick '98 (CEO of techdirt) and Ofer Ronen '06 (CEO of Sendori). Michael and Ofer presented us with their war stories of how they started and secured funding for their startups. We left very excited about the prospects to start something big in the Valley - a very inspiring evening!

Day 2:
Unbelievable! It's cooler in Silicon Valley than in Ithaca!!

Our first visit was Cisco, the networking giant. We started from the hotel very early, 7:30 am that day because of a demonstration of Cisco's TelePresence video conferencing software product. (please check-out the demo on their web site. It is really cool!). At Cisco, we were greeted by Larry O'Connell '97. Larry gave an overview of Cisco and explained Cisco's new mantra: The Network is the Platform for Life's Experiences. Cisco has expanded its product offerings to include all things that are connected to internet, from high-end routers, used in big corporations, to VOIP adapters, used by consumers. It is also working on building its brand visibility and has hired the person who was behind "Intel Inside" campaign to lead this effort.

After Larry's speech, we got an overview of the various positions that Cisco hires MBA's for, the timeline for applying for full-time positions and internships, and work permit issues for international students.

Finally we had a Q & A session with Annie Leung '97, Ram Velaga '00 and MadhusudhanY.Reddy '00. Each alumnus explained various job functions that they performed at Cisco. Following that we all disbursed in small groups to network with the alumni.

Next we went to eBay where we were welcomed by Sarah Brubacher '99, Senior Policy Mgr, Trust and Safety.
Silicon Valley Trek: Ebay
Sarah is one of the most active Johnson alumni on the west coast and organized not only our eBay visit but also our Alumni networking event that evening. The first speaker Rob Chestnut, Director Trust and Safety, was a federal attorney prosecuting fraud and espionage cases before coming to eBay as employee #170. He provided an overview of the company and discussed its strategic direction since the acquisition of PayPal and Skype. He also gave overview of various challenges that eBay faces to keep its customers safe from fraud. Next, we had a discussion panel with Sarah, Clay Kunz '02, and representatives from Product Management and Corporate Strategy. Each of the panelists discussed their roles in detail and addressed our questions. Finally, Clay gave us a very useful presentation on networking and conducting an independent job search in the Bay Area.

From eBay we proceeded to Intel where were received by Anuj Dua '01, Marketing Manager in the Apple Group. Anuj is a very active Johnson alumnus who is currently sponsoring a project for the Johnson School Management Practicum. The featured speaker was Steve Smith, VP and Director of Ops for Digital Enterprise Groups. Steve gave an overview of Intel's new business units and strategy. The five units are Digital Enterprises, Digital House, Digital Health, Channel Platforms, and Mobility. Digital Enterprise and Mobility are the largest units and Digital Health is a "well funded start-up". Following his speech, we were given an overview of the Sales and Marketing Rotation Program. Finally, we were given an abbreviated tour of the Intel museum.

That evening, we attended to Johnson School Meet & Greet event at Steelhead Brewery. We meet several alums and prospective students there. We did some drinking, played some pool and had good food - an awesome way to end the day!

Day 3:
No change in the temperature, still pretty cool :(.

First stop, Adobe Systems. The first speaker, Michelle Turner, provided a corporate overview as well as an interesting history of the Silicon Valley based on her prior experience with Silicon Graphics, Excite@home, AOL and NetFlix. Adobe merged with MacroMedia last year, and they are very enthusiastic about the opportunities as a platform company (evolving from their prior positioning as an application company). New mission: Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information. For example, the Apollo project: a web enabled desktop runtime that will take PDF, Flash and html across platforms.

Dave Burkett, VP Product Mgmt/ Creative Solutions then gave us an overview of the Creative Solution business unit. We were then joined by Mitchell Nelson '89 (Eng), Director, DCC Marketing/Business Ops, who gave us a brief overview of his role. We ended the session with a tour of Adobe facilities.

The final stop for most of us was BEA Systems where the session was kicked off by Kevin Faulkner, VP Investor Relations, who gave us an overview of BEA's vision: Simplify Enterprise Computing. We had a very spirited discussion about the opportunities provided by Service Oriented Architecture and BEA's strategy to continue to excel in the crowded Enterprise Software space. After the important presentation on open positions and how to apply for them, we had a discussion panel with several recently hired MBA's in the Finance and Marketing departments.

There was more excitement for a small group of us who visited the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). PARC has recently spun off from Xerox, and is looking for ways to commercialize its vast and cutting edge portfolio of research - that's where Johnson MBA's step in. We had a great brainstorming session with Lab Manager Scott Elrod and Business Development Directors Lawrence Lee and Nitin Parekh and left very excited about the prospects of commercializing PARC's research portfolio.