Meeting Summary

Kellogg Alumni Council Latin America

February 3, 2012

Hyatt Hotel, KSM Miami Campus

Coral Gables, FL

Attending: Eric Acher ’95, Miguel Ramirez Barber ’76, Vladimir Barbieri ’97, Maximiliano Echeverria ’74, Luis Enrique Garcia de Paredes ’08, Kevin Marinacci ’96, Jorge Quintanilla Nielsen ’98, Jose Quinonez ’96, Kellogg: Sally Blount ’92, Kam Amato, Shana Carroll, Paul Christensen

Welcome, Chair KAC Latin America

Miguel Ramirez Barber brought the meeting to order, emphasizing that the Miami program is an important part of what the KAC should be supporting.

He emphasized three points

  • It’s clear that Kellogg wants to position itself as a global business school.
  • Kellogg differentiates itself from other schools through values and principles. It’s about the long-term experience, not short term financial gain.
  • The alumni network is a central part of the school’s strategy. The KAC needs to distinguish itself in Latin America.

Dean’s Report

Dean Sally Blount gave the following report.

Assessment of school from year one (strengths):

  • Highly competitive, well-balanced faculty
  • An established brand and distinctive culture
  • Academically excellent, highly motivated students who are passionate about their school
  • Deeply committed administrators who care about Kellogg’s forward trajectory
  • Accomplished dedicated alumni who are eager to support the school

Our strategic challenge is to be on the short list of global business schools in 2020.

Our seven-year work plan:

  • Assessment
  • Organizational restructuring for operational excellence
  • Brand repositioning
  • Developing our five-year strategic plan
  • Building our global architecture
  • Capital campaign quiet and public phases
  • New building design and construction

Deepening and building five core capabilities will be critical to our success:

  1. Offer the best student experience
  2. Optimize the faculty research and teaching experience
  3. Catalyze the alumni experience
  4. Maximize the value of corporate partnerships
  5. Lead in marketing and communicating “the Kellogg way”

We are at an inflection point with an imperative for change:

  • Internal imperative
  • External imperative
  • Drive to reclaim our distinctiveness

Five Year strategic plan is organized around four key goals:

  1. Establish our thought leadership strategy

Four impact areas:

  1. Markets and customers
  2. Architectures of collaboration
  3. Private enterprise and public policy
  4. Innovation and entrepreneurship
  1. Ground our education mission
  2. Set technology agenda
  3. Create new physical environments that transform face-to-face learning
  4. Establish hiring and development strategy for practitioner faculty
  5. Design core curricula; rebalance portfolio
  6. Build and anchor our global architecture
  7. Restructure and rebrand our global EMBA partnerships to create one-of-a-kind, integrated global EMBA network. Kellogg was pioneer in joint executive programs and while our joint programs make top of the list in rankings, other educational models will allow us to adapt to the changing global marketplace
  8. Invest in establishing Kellogg as global thought leader in marketing by establishing Kellogg Institute for Global Markets with offices in Chicago, Sao Paulo and Shanghai (later India)
  9. Mobilize and catalyze our global alumni network through better utilization of technology, international and new global sites; invest in more robust administrative infrastructure
  10. Develop and leverage our distinct culture and brand
  11. Market and promote the Kellogg brand globally
  12. Intentionally foster and shape our culture
  13. Mobilize and catalyze our global alumni network

Discussion

  • Need to flesh out how we integrate the council and alumni leaders (Council will be critical in this effort)
  • Part of strategy of KAC should be how to support programs in Miami
  • Life-long learning is of great interest to alumni in the region

Suggestions:

  • When faculty make visits to global regions, find a way to connect them with local alumni clubs (need to categorize faculty travel)
  • Offer courses to alumni at discounted rates

Alumni Engagement and the KAC

Shana Carroll, Chief of Staff, Kellogg School of Management shared the following:

Goals, objectivesand findings around alumni engagement and the role of the KAC:

  • Working to develop a cohesive, overarching strategy for the Kellogg Alumni Councils – one that brings some uniformity but also allows for customization by region
  • Working to build stronger connections and integration between KAC members and other alumni leaders in the regions, specifically club leaders (this is already happening across Latin America and we’re extending and deepening this model going forward)
  • Leveraging the alumni community is powerful and critical to achieving our strategic goals

We’ve introduced a new guiding purpose for the KAC which more clearly aligns with the school’s strategic plan. The guiding purpose is as follows:

•The purpose of the Kellogg Alumni Councils (KACs) is to serve as leaders in catalyzing our global alumni community, vitally connecting alumni to one another and the school throughout their lifetime.

•KAC members are champions and ambassadors of Kellogg that strengthen and enrich our network by:

•guiding and influencing the alumni engagement strategy by providing direction, feedback and critical resources;

•creating strong networks in partnership with the school and fellow alumni leaders;

•fostering a deep sense of affiliation and pride among alumni; and

•helping build Kellogg’s presence and reputation worldwide by serving as key extensions of the School.

An internal cross-functional team is working to develop our alumni engagement strategy. Some initial steps being taken include:

  • Market research with an external partner is being conducted to help inform our strategy
  • Assessment and inventory of menu of existing alumni engagement opportunities is being built-out
  • The development of a technology infrastructure will help support: community and network building; career development and life-long learning; volunteer engagement and service; alumni clubs. Ken Ewell, KAC North America, is leading the new community platform project with outreach to alumni globally for input.

The school would like the help of KAC Latin America in prioritizing resources and determining key strategies for Latin American markets.

Global Strategy Update

Paul Christensen, Associate Dean of Global Programs shared the following:

A faculty team has been working with Dean Christensen on the school’s emerging global strategy and is being vetted with alumni globally

One of the school’s four key tasks in the strategic plan is to build/anchor our global architecture which includes several components

  • Focus on building the global alumni network
  • Establishment of a physical Kellogg presence in 2 key global markets (São Paulo, Brazil and Shanghai, China)
  • Continued emphasis on our global network of partner schools

Discussion:

  • Alumni clubs and engagement:
  • Alumni clubs should have a basic set of services and the school should provide standard support for them.
  • Webinars on topics of interest could be a way of making life-long learning feasible.
  • To be sustainable, engagement opportunities need to be replicable.
  • Charging fees for certain engagement opportunities places a value on them.
  • Alumni toolkit for key talking points on Kellogg is needed.
  • Alumni place a high value proposition on life-long learning, including faculty and alumni speakers. Leverage alumni travel when possible.
  • Alumni need to talk about their Kellogg MBA in professional settings and when published. (The impact of local PR should not be minimized).
  • KAC:
  • Rotating events/meetings throughout the Latin America region is preferable.
  • If the KAC meets twice per year, have one meeting in Miami and rotate location of second meeting.
  • Add more value to KAC travel, such as a weekend course or seminar before/after the council meeting (suggested topics: Leadership; Career change)
  • Use KAC as advisors to alumni club leaders

In closing, Miguel Ramirez Barber tied back to three of Dean Blount’s messages:

  • Latin America is an important component to Kellogg’s being a top global business school
  • Latin America alumni community is unique through its own culture
  • The KAC LA should partner with other alumni leaders to build connections with and strengthen the alumni community at large

Next Steps

  • A follow-up call will be scheduled
  • Dates will be set for the next KAC LA meetings

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