Many Journeys, a Single Goal

Was it difficult to leave work and come to HBS for eight weeks?

When you have the backing of your organization, attending AMP will pay back a hundred or a thousand times more than what you might lose by being away for eight weeks. It's an exceptional opportunity to broaden your thinking.

For me, coming to HBS was a massive deal. When I was 16, I left school and started filling shelves for Tesco, the UK's biggest grocery retailer. I have been very successful in my career over the past 20-odd years, but doing something this academic was a big challenge. I'm tremendously proud of having come from where I started to where I am now. But I'm also glad that I had the opportunity to attend AMP and complete it successfully. It's been truly incredible.

What were some of your first impressions of AMP?

The first person I shook hands with was one of the members of my living group. We shared a moment of "I'm nervous, you're nervous, but we will get through this all right." I then met a succession of people who were all at AMP because they wanted to learn and get as much as possible out of the experience. We were all nervous on day one, but everyone was extremely welcoming and friendly, so settling in was a simple process.

I was hardly in my room. I spent most of my time in class, in optional lectures with fantastic speakers, with my living group having dinner or talking about cases, studying, or in the gym.

Can you describe your living group experience?

I had a wonderful, supportive living group. We became fast friends. The coaches do outstanding work in making sure that the living group is functioning as a team. It felt like we went from 0 to 100 m.p.h. in the first three or four days. Facilitating that teamwork helps everyone to get past the apprehension and into the rhythm of the learning process.

After the first or second case study, we hit our stride and got into a great routine. We knew that each day we would finish class, study in the afternoon, and prep for a living group meeting in the evening. On Wednesdays, we'd study harder, meet earlier, and go out to dinner. On Saturdays, we'd finish class, go to the gym, and then go out to dinner. We managed to work our way through many of the great restaurants in Boston on those evenings. Conversations around our dinner table were fun and intellectually stimulating. You don't often get an opportunity to have conversations with this caliber of people about so many different things.

How did the diversity of your classmates contribute to your learning?

I've been exposed to an amazing group of people. We were like the United Nations. One moment I was having a conversation with a Saudi surgeon, and the next minute I'm talking to an American drilling oil, and then a Finnish banker.

I was deeply inspired by hearing about people's journeys—how they see the world and how they have tackled challenges. The biggest thing I've learned from the AMP social experience is to be more accepting of people who are different from me, because assumptions based on first impressions are generally wrong. When I had a long conversation with someone about their country and their business, I got a different slant on the world and I learned a great deal.

How did the AMP faculty enhance the learning experience?

The professors are outstanding. They are first-class educators—and there's showmanship as well. Their comic timing can be unbelievable. Not once did I look at my watch in class. When you have been in a classroom for 90 minutes going full throttle, you walk out knowing so much more than you did going in. But at AMP, you're not a passive participant—you're an active part of the learning process. It's a fantastic way of learning.

You walk out of each class thinking, "How do I process all of that?" But the program gives you plenty of opportunity to reflect on the lesson. You can also take advantage of great tools that help you consider the takeaways in the context of your workplace and your life.

Dick Vietor taught the Business and Government module and came to our living group to have a drink with us and discuss one of the countries featured in the module. We walked away from those 90 minutes with him with a rich understanding of what makes that country tick financially and culturally and of the challenges its political leaders face. He is very knowledgeable and happy to share his knowledge. Interacting with people of this caliber was a special opportunity that doesn't come along every day.

What were the highlights of the case methodology?

The discussions are exciting. The professors start off case discussions by asking people to introduce the case. Someone is brave enough to start off and say, "I think it's about X." Then another classmate jumps in and says, "No, I think it might be like this" or "This might be the consequence." All of a sudden there's an incredible dynamic, an incredible energy buzzing around the room because everyone has a viewpoint. None of us got this far in our career without having opinions. We could share those views and challenge them in the safety of the classroom.

The faculty were very good at encouraging each person to contribute their part. Sometimes the faculty would deliberately set up one person taking one side of the argument and another taking the opposite side, but that usually emerged naturally anyway. It's powerful when you're given the opportunity to not just make a statement on something, but to then have to defend your position. I was worried that it might be confrontational, but it wasn't like that—it was stimulating and fun.

The case method is powerful because it's based on real life, not theory. In each one of our cases there was something that made me think, "I've never thought about it like that" or "That challenge, even though it's a different industry, is pretty similar to one that I have."

Which parts of the curriculum were most valuable for you?

The single most important area for me was strategy. I'm the fifth person from my company to attend AMP. My boss's boss learned about the Five Forces strategy model from one of the faculty, Cynthia Montgomery, a number of years ago. Based on that model, we completely changed the way we approached part of our business and we made an important acquisition. The fact that I could meet and talk with Cynthia—the original catalyst—about what we'd done to translate that theory into real business decisions and how it had affected our business was brilliant.

Cynthia tells us that we are the chief strategists in our organizations. It's not a job we can give to anyone else. That's one of the important principles I learned—that strategy is just about choices. It's not rocket science. Some organizations have distinct strategy functions and strategy becomes something that is done to you. In AMP, I learned that strategy is about the leadership teams making decisions—with the right information, the best judgment, and a solid understanding of the market. Ultimately, it all boils down to being brave enough to make the right decisions.

Now that I've finished the program, I'm going to pull out the enormous strategy documents we write every year and check that we're going in the right direction and examine the plan that underpins the strategy with a much more discerning eye.

Aside from dinners, what did you and other AMPers do for fun?

For the family break in the middle of the program, those of us who did not have our families coming decided to do a road trip to Newport, Rhode Island. We had not spent much time together outside class before that. I really got to know people on that trip—we had a tremendously fun weekend and came back refreshed for the second half of the course.

Boston is a great city. There's so much to do! You can enjoy the local sports teams—basketball, baseball, and ice hockey. You're also just across the street from the rest of Harvard and the shops of Harvard Square. If you have the energy, you can explore the fantastic nightlife. The whole area has a great university buzz.

What did you take home from AMP?

I have a broader base of valuable business knowledge. I now know many very technical things, from the topic of discounted cash flow to the dynamics of the Turkish economy. I've also developed a deeper understanding of leadership behavior and have greater confidence through greater insight into who I am and what a leader needs to do.

At AMP, I had the unique chance to spend time with people who are every bit as accomplished and who attended the program for the same reasons I did. We learned as much from each other as we did from class. I've made some great friends. There are 10 to 20 people that I fully intend to keep in touch with.

I returned to work energized, with many new ideas and different ways of looking at the world. The real value will be in how I apply all of the fantastic knowledge and tools I've been given to make my business and my life better.

Who will benefit most from attending AMP?

I think there's probably a point in each person's career when this experience will be most powerful and valuable. Many of us were at an inflection point in our careers or our lives, and were figuring out what the next decade would look like. That's the time to reflect and consider who you are, what you value, and what you want to do next.

Everyone could come to HBS and benefit, regardless of your level of education. You've just got to be ready to learn. You'll take something different away depending on your experience and training.

What advice do you have for other executives considering AMP?

If you have the opportunity to attend AMP, grab it with both hands and enjoy every single moment of it. Being with a group of like-minded people and some fantastic professors was the opportunity of a lifetime. AMP has lived up to and exceeded my expectations in every way.