Day 25: June 22, 2009

We started our day at 7:00 AM with breakfast. Following breakfast, our first studio of the day was at 8 am with Professor Brian Griffith. Professor Griffith wrapped up his last session with the students focusing on the experience and growth he has witness in our students and recapped some of his previous studios. He drew our attention to the 5 elements of leadership and active listening. Following Brian’s session, Professor Cherrie Clark provided some brief insight into investment with a number of examples from Warren Buffett.

Following a short break, we broke out into team sessions and started to work on Coca-Cola. We will present Coca-Cola on Thursday and the team’s presentations are really starting to take shape. We have 6 executives coming from Coca-Cola to do the judging who will remain for our farewell dinner on Thursday night.

As many of our students majoring or minoring in finance or accounting, we invited representatives and current students from the Masters of Accounting to host an information session about Vanderbilt’s program. The MAcc representatives joined our students for lunch after the info session and networked with our students in a more relaxed atmosphere. We also had representatives from the “Big Four” firms: Jessica Hagler, KPMG; Elliott Benator, KPMG; Bob Guido, PwC; Kevin Walker, Ernst & Young; Jena Riggs, Ernst & Young; Michelle Adams, Deloitte; Mary Hus, PwC; Chichi Onuzu, Deloitte. Joining them was David Mayer, a current MAcc student at Owen that will be finishing next year.

At 1 pm, our teams started their final team session for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee (BCBST) / Gordian Health Solutions with their deliverables due at 4:30 pm.

After their final BCBST team session, Professor Bart Victor met with our students on Business Ethics.

Following Victor’s studio, our teams finalized their presentations during dinner as BCBST dress rehearsals started at 6:30 pm. Our teams spent the rest of the evening working on BCBST and we closed up the building quite late. The last team left about 2:30 AM. The projects are looking great and we can’t wait to see BCBST’s response tomorrow!

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

Michael Burcham
Faculty Director, Accelerator 2009