Day 20: June 17, 2009

We began our day with our usual 7:00 AM breakfast. Our first Studio of the day was run by Prof. Cherrie Clark – she wrapped up the Project Management series of Studios, helping our teams think about the packaging of their solutions for our clients.

At 9:30, our Accelerator participants moved to their team rooms to wrap up their work on the Presidio – Cisco project and get all their deliverables ready to turn in. By noon, we were getting a bit stressed, only 4 of the 8 teams had completed all their deliverables. They continued to work through lunch – we’ll get these finished up this afternoon so that we can begin our dress rehearsals for the client this evening at 6:30 PM.

Following lunch, Prof. Neta Moye conducted a Studio on “your first 100 days on the job” – it was just awesome. She shared insights of how our participants can hit the ground running in their first jobs and secure a strong beginning to their careers.

Following a short break, Prof David Furse conducted a Studio called “Connecting the Dots” – our final strategy session of how to meet and exceed client expectations using strategy tools.

At 3:30, teams who had completed their Cisco – Presidio work turned their attention to our Sony Music client. The remaining 4 teams worked to finish the Presidio deliverables.

We began dress rehearsals for Cisco – Presidio at 6:30 PM – these ran till just after 10:00 PM. Teams continued working into the night to polish their recommendations and to prepare for the arrival of Cisco and Presidio tomorrow morning. I turned out the lights at 1:00 AM in the business school. When I arrived at the dorm (a bit bleary eyed), there were still about 10-12 of our participants practicing their presentations.

What a transformation in just a few short weeks – these young men and women are driven to success and expect to delight their customer. I’m impressed. While I know it’s a grueling schedule – our goal is to show them what’s possible – and to stretch them to do more than they ever imagined they were capable of doing. They’re also learning how much fun meaningful work can be!

If you want to see our photo library, you may do so at http://picasaweb.google.com/VanderbiltAccelerator

Michael Burcham
Faculty Director, Accelerator 2009