Plum Organics

Asha Datta, Associate Brand Manager; Benjamin Mand, Director of Marketing 

• 5-6 years ago the baby food category had very little innovation; there was very little healthy food (with an excitement factor) for kids.  Everything was in glass jars.
• Plum broke the mold, paving the way with the “premium spouted pouch” that has revolutionized the category.
• There are so many myths about the right way to feed a baby (e.g. white rice cereal) – Plum considers education about this nutrition an important part of its mission.
• Revolution Foods merged into Plum Organics with the success of Plum.
  • The destination in a grocery store for baby, tots, and kids products is different, so brand equity and strength across categories is especially important.
    • Some retailers are evolving (Target has a lunchbox section) in terms of shelving and location within channel.
• The different categories of products have different characteristics:
  • Babies will eat what you give them, so branding is to mom.
  • Kids are more receptive to branding and want product to be cool.
    • There are important packaging and branding implications as a result.
• Marketing strategy:
  • Do not use agency (mostly in house).
  • Gut, intuitive approach that until recently did not include much paid media.
  • Key emphasis on partnerships with other “food” oriented causes.
  • Also strategically have used PR throughout growth phases.
  • Social: #3 liked baby food brand on FB, #1 on Twitter.
  • Use grassroots campaigns (each day feature a “mom’s” picture of a funny moment or image).
• Innovation:
  • Constant focus area (Neil, the CEO, was from IDEO).
  • Recent innovation led products include little yums (teething biscuits) and international flavors food.
  • Time to market for new products: 6-12 months.

Q&A Highlights:

• How do you deal with so many SKUs?
  It’s obviously tough to manage from the manufacturing side, but also enables us to really test innovation and see what works.  Our small company size allows us to be nimble and quick to market. 
• How do you think about threat from Private Label?
  We have to deal with it more and more as the category matures.  When we can, we try to establish exclusivity with retailers for as long as we can.

Williams-Sonoma

Pat Connolly, Chief Marketing Officer; SVP Brand Marketing; VP e-commerce; Director of Online; VP Customer Analysis

• WSM recently gave a 3-year earnings forecast, which is a longer time horizon than normal. CEO is emphasizing the customer experience across all channels.
• Most of the brands were generated internally (Pottery Barn, West Elm).
• WSM is increasingly facing competition from branded products that they carry in their Williams-Sonoma stores, since these brands are focusing on building out their own direct ecommerce businesses. They’re working on developing exclusive product lines with their branded vendors to avoid competition.
• Company is very analytics-driven, considering themselves at the intersection of lifestyle merchandising and analytics. 
• They are focused on growing their direct-to-consumer channel because they think they are currently a profitable direct retailer in the US.
• The company is able to find new customers through ecommerce, and develop repeat customers through their retail channels. 
• Increasing focus on customer satisfaction, measuring Net Promotor Scores, opt-outs, return rates and reviews.
• Most purchases are currently through PCs. Phones are not a big channel, but they’re looking closely at optimizing their online shopping experience for tablets. 
• They maintain retail, online and catalog channels. They’re agnostic about where customers make purchases, but they do think that the stores must be very experiential. They hosted an Etsy event at their West Elm store in PA, for example, to drive traffic.
• Local is an increasing focus for them — localizing the store experience.

Dear MBA-2s -

Carly Janson and I have created a new Career and Life Vision workshop called “Beyond the GSB: Strategic Career Management”.  The focus of the workshop is giving you the tools to leverage a hypothesis-driven, iterative model of career management once you graduate from the GSB.

We are going to deliver it for the first time on Wednesday May 1st from noon to 1PM in M105. Signups are on the dashboard.

For this first session delivering the workshop, we are looking for “beta testers” – MBA-2s who care about the Career and Life Vision program and who are willing to give us feedback as we prepare the workshop for wider delivery.

The new material is different from the CLV you took in your first year. So if you are interested, please sign up via the dashboard and contact my new assistant Jennifer Kim (kim_jennifer@gsb.stanford.edu) with any questions.

Warmly,

Pulin

Many MBAs are still in the interview process at this point in the year. Even if you have had several interviews – make sure you have reviewed and strengthened your marketing pitch.

Preparation for interviews and conversations is key to landing your dream job. Career coaches generally advise candidates to have at least three prepared accomplishment stories. You need to be prepared to market and promote your skills – and think about how they are relevant to the organization. Some interviewers will dig deep on one project.

Career Coach Lou Adler recently wrote a nice blog that included a great outline for thinking through your key achievement.

Here is a bit from his blog – “Hire With Your Head and The Essential Guide for Hiring and Getting Hired”

What single project or task would you consider the most significant accomplishment in your career so far?

To see why this simple question is so powerful, imagine you’re the candidate and I’ve just asked you this question. What accomplishment would you select? Then imagine over the course of the next 15-20 minutes I dug deeper and asked you about the following. How would you respond?

• Can you give me a detailed overview of the accomplishment?
• Tell me about the company, your title, your position, your role, and the team involved.
• What were the actual results achieved?
• When did it take place and how long did the project take.
• Why you were chosen?
• What were the 3-4 biggest challenges you faced and how did you deal with them?
• Where did you go the extra mile or take the initiative?
• Walk me through the plan, how you managed to it, and if it was successful.
• Describe the environment and resources.
• Describe your manager’s style and whether you liked it or not.
• Describe the technical skills needed to accomplish the objective and how they were used.
• Some of the biggest mistakes you made.
• Aspects of the project you truly enjoyed.
• Aspects you didn’t especially care about and how you handled them.
• How you managed and influenced others, with lots of examples.
• How you were managed, coached, and influenced by others, with lots of examples.
• How you changed and grew as a person.
• What you would do differently if you could do it again.
• What type of formal recognition did you receive?

Read More: The Most Important Interview Question of All Time – Part 1 (Lou Adler)

>> Need help in the job search? Make an appointment to see a Career Advisor! We are here to help.

Interesting blog on how MBAs can play a role in tech with product marketing, sales, business operations, and customer service…

Most tech startups are hostile territory for MBAs. Startup people take pride in building things — and MBAs aren’t known in the startup world as builders.

But that dogma is increasingly out-of-date. As venture capitalist Ben Horowitz, a don of the Silicon Valley engineering culture, pointed out last year, today’s MBAs are less arrogant, and the good ones actually … well, help build stuff…..

Where do these roles lead? All could lead to senior, executive-level positions at large, growth-stage companies, if that’s your goal. They could also prepare you to start your own company. The key, as it is in any startup role, is to be focused on building something your customers love.

>> Read the full blog post 

As an international student, we recognize that your job search may feel frustrating because on top of the stress of looking for a job, you also have to deal with the added hassle of obtaining the necessary work authorizations or visas.

 We want to draw your attention to two changes to the Job Board, which will hopefully expand your job search options.  These changes were made to comply with citizenship status anti-discrimination policies set by the US Department of Justice. 

CHANGE #1: You can apply to ALL jobs, regardless of employer’s Work Authorization Requirement

Up until now, if you were an F-1 or J-1 student, the Job Board system would not allow you to apply to jobs that were labeled by employers as only for “US Citizens and US Permanent Work Authorization Required”.

However, there have been some cases of employers making exceptions for international students – and we do not want to restrict you in pursuing this possibility.  You can now apply to ALL jobs, regardless of the employers’ willingness to sponsor your visa.  Ultimately, it is YOUR responsibility to communicate with the employer about your work authorization status.

CHANGE #2: New options under Work Authorization Requirement

When researching jobs in the Job Board, you’ve probably done advanced searches based on the “Work Authorization Requirement” category.  Up until recently, the choices in this category were the following:

(1) All may apply

(2) US Citizenship or US Permanent Work Authorization Required

(3) Specific Work Authorization (non-US jobs)

We have added a new category to this list: “Does not provide Visa sponsorship”.  This option is selected by employers who are NOT willing to sponsor visas, such as the H1-B, TN, E-3 visa or Permanent Residency. This is an indication that the employer prefers domestic students and has no intention to sponsor any work visas at this point in time. But, as mentioned above, as an international student you can still apply for the job. Just remember: it is always your responsibility to tell your employer that you will require visa sponsorship when your temporary work authorization (such as your OPT) runs out.  If you need help communicating this to the respective employer, come in to see us at the CMC!

You may be wondering: how is “Does not provide Visa sponsorship” different from “US Citizenship or US Permanent Work Authorization Required”?  Under a US Department of Justice ruling, employers are only allowed to select “US Citizenship or US Permanent Work Authorization” if this is required to comply with law, regulation, executive order or government contract. Such cases are rare; for example, jobs at the US Department of Defense or with military contractors. In all other instances, “No visa sponsorship offered” is the default option.

Jobs that were posted prior to April 8, 2013 will NOT be updated.  If you notice jobs that are listed for “US Citizenship or US Permanent Work Authorization” that was posted before April 8, 2013, you can infer that it probably means “Does not provide Visa sponsorship”. Don’t be discouraged and still apply!

Questions? Contact us at cmc@gsb.stanford.edu.

If your questions are related to work authorization (such as CPT/OPT), first check the Bechtel International Center website for information, then contact the Bechtel Center for more information: internationalstudents@stanford.edu.

Have a job offer? Wondering if you should negotiate? Need help with preparation to successfully negotiate your base salary? The CMC has added a new Negotiation Module to our portfolio of resources.

Module Benefits: Great advice and the ability to complete this distance learning tool in your own time.

Listen to what CMC Director Pulin Sanghvi has to say. The module includes podcasts, worksheets, and scenario examples. Make sure you have a win-win plan that insures you don’t leave money on the table.

» Begin Negotiation Module

Action Item: Talk through offers with a CMC Advisor – schedule on the Dashboard.

Great Articles:

•  “Salary Negotiation: Five Ways to Get the Salary You Want” (WSJ)
• “Answer the Most Difficult Interview Question” (by Penelope Trunk)

Feedback or Comments? If you have tips on negotiation – let us know!

Since we’ve spent a lot of time talking to start-ups over the past year, Rebecca Chopra and I (Grace Yokoi) decided to try something new, and spent a day over your spring break talking to alumni at bigger tech companies. (According to Business Insider, everyone wants to work at big tech companies   :) .)

We gathered insights about company culture, what sorts of people fit, why people would want to join, and what our alumni have been doing.

LINKEDIN

Luke Baxter ’08 and Monica Lewis ’12, who both work on the same product marketing team. Their work is data-driven, creative, and strategic, and requires that they really know the customer. They serve as their customers’ advocates to the product management team. Product marketing thinks about such issues as how to change behavior, how to educate and build relationships with their users, and how to build two-sided businesses. Luke believes the product marketing career path has been underrated thus far, but that more and more companies are realizing the function’s importance in driving growth.

When we asked about where are the areas of growth within Linkedin, they mentioned that they continue to think about new groups and new use cases (eg, non-profit organizations using Linkedin to find board members; students using it as a career-planning tool); mobile; content streams; and other things such as how to continue to optimize the profile page for their users.

INTUIT

We met with Danielle Garcia ’11, Product Manager, Mobile in her new building in Menlo Park. She talked to us about her role and the overall culture at Intuit. Intuit is known for a culture of innovation. From their own site – “…entrepreneurial employees have brought more than 250 innovations to market — from QuickBooks®, Quicken®, and TurboTax®, to GoPayments, Mint.com, Intuit Healthcare Solutions, big data, SaaS, and mobile apps.”

Danielle has felt that in her role she has been able to make good impact. Product management at Intuit is a place for someone that wants to be CEO of the product. She works with engineers, marketing, sales, and other groups in the organization.

One great thing about Intuit is the ability to move to different groups and grow in the company. According to Danielle, people move around in the company and those changes are encouraged to retain great employees. She advises that MBAs do their research to find out where they fit in any organization of interest. Groups are different in any company. Other alumni with Intuit include Ed Castano ‘11 (Mint.com), Catherine Wang ’05, Allyson Letteri ’07, and many more.

Intuit doesn’t do formal on-campus recruiting but hires MBAs for summer and full time. The two main areas for MBA interns are Product Management and Marketing. Talk to alumni there to start networking. (If you have consulting experience makes sure to use that network as well.)

Danielle feels that her experience at Intuit has given her some great new experience. She is going to use those skills to start a social enterprise in Asia this year.

• Intuit is a good place to get pm experience if you are non-technical.
• The company values the MBA and likes candidates with consulting backgrounds
• They also hire international candidates

GOOGLE

We headed down the street to have lunch with Astrid Pierre-Louis and Laura Jones, both ’09. (The lunch options were many and delicious, and there was something for everyone, including all-kosher fare and a gluten-free cafe.) Both alumni have moved around within Google, using their “20% time” to work on projects that were interesting to them/positioned them well for a career move (in Astrid’s case, to move from product marketing to business development), or to develop a platform/expertise (in Laura’s case, to become a design-thinking expert supporting marketing projects). Read more about “20% time” and other Google perks here; though it sounded as though employees really end up working 120%.

Astrid and Laura concurred that, well, Google is a big company and works like a big company– decision-making can be slow and it can get political/bureaucratic. But that con balances out with pro of the ability to move around (typically within the same function but different groups/products) and even create your own niche, as Laura has done, with the support of the right managers.  Another insight was that it really is an engineering company…product seems to command resources and attention in a way that no other functions can. Those who are in other functions should come in with that understanding. But there is still good work to be done! and it’s a matter of finding the group you believe in and work that energizes you.

One piece of advice: things are always changing at Google, and you need to be willing to be flexible to some extent. Alumni have met with students who are interested in only one product at Google, but it’s not a good strategy to define too narrowly where you’d like to be. The project that was hot yesterday could be shut down tomorrow, and then you’ll need to find/redefine your place at the company.

EBAY

We learned a lot about the marketing function at eBay from Megan Melvin, ’10, who came from CPG marketing pre-GSB and contrasted her roles (“old/predictable” versus “new”) for us. Marketing at eBay is different from marketing at Facebook or Google, thinks Megan, because eBay is so close to the consumer– because the consumer actually transacts with them. Megan works in the Consumer Selling group, which she says feels like a startup within eBay, as part of her job is to think about alternative models for consumers to sell on eBay.

Marketing is very analytical at eBay. Megan looks for people who are strategic, have analytical horsepower, and are “hungry”. If they don’t come from a marketing background (which might be preferred), she looks for demonstrated interest in marketing –

• Have you done a project?
• Have you done anything for the Marketing Club?
• At minimum, candidates should have an account on eBay and have bought and sold things [this sounds very elementary, but you'd be surprised at the number of people who tell us that interviewees have never used their product...!].

Megan also mentioned that employees at eBay either want to become deep experts, or acquire a number of different “tools in their toolbelt”. Megan is the latter; and because of this has moved from the Loyalty marketing group to her current team. (EBay has a rule that an employee needs to be in a given role at least one year before moving around.)

>> Have you worked in big tech? What advice do you have?

On March 13^th the Stanford GSB Retail Club visited the headquarters of three ecommerce companies: Everlane, One Kings Lane and ModCloth.  We were able to visit the offices of the companies as well as meet with key leaders in each company.

At Everlane we met with Michael Preysman and Robert Cantwell, the Co-Founder/CEO and Head of Operations, respectively.  Everlane is a vertically integrated brand; their business is ecommerce-only and cuts out middlemen to bring customers luxury, quality clothing for prices that are a fraction of that of the competition.  They are seeing a huge amount of success attracting loyal customers.  Their main challenges are building interest around key product launches and managing their supply chain effectively.

At One Kings Lane we were lucky enough to meet with Ali Pincus, one of One Kings Lane’s co-founders.  Ali shared her story of founding what is now a highly successful company with over 400 employees.  Much of our discussion centered on how One Kings Lane is transitioning from a “flash sale” website to be much more.  We were told to look out for new product launches in the near future, and Ali herself is working on some new projects at One Kings Lane!

From left to right: Lindsay Ting, Lizzie Agnew, Alex Day, Abby Flora, Hannah Hale, Kathleen Wark, Rosa Li

Finally, the Retail Club met with Fiona O’Donnell-McCarthy, Business Development Lead, and Jeff Shotts, CFO of ModCloth.  ModCloth is revolutionizing ecommerce.  Instead of ordering clothes based on expected demand, ModCloth asks customers what they want first and uses this information to inform buying decisions.  This allows ModCloth to be much smarter about inventory decisions and improve their business model.

On our trek, we learned a huge amount about three of the most important ecommerce companies in the Bay Area.  Not only did we get an inside look at these companies, but we also saw glimpses of the future of retail.

During our outreach to tech firms, the CMC has collected some great tips on finding and landing a role with a tech firm. Here is another great blog with tips for the career changer. The guest blogger on “Alex’s Tech Thoughts” is Ellen DaSilva.

Ellen DaSilva spent time in finance and decided to move into a career in tech. Here is some of her advice to the job seeker. “I simply would not have a job today if I didn’t take advantage of my network. Tech is not an industry in which you can submit your resume online and hope you get picked.”  She writes:

Over the past year, I have spoken to countless peers, predominantly in the financial services industry, looking for a way to break into tech. Introductions come from friends, people who reach out to me via LinkedIn and everywhere in between, who think that the luster of the tech industry holds promise that makes finance seem antiquated. Here are some pieces of advice that I give to those looking to get jobs at startups or other tech companies with a background in finance.

1.     Make sure you know what you want to do and and why.

2.     Use the product, and be passionate about it.

3.     Be humble and work hard.

4.     Don’t get blindsighted by the words “business development.”

5.     Don’t discount the benefits of working for a larger, more established company.

6.     Stay up-to-date on the industry.

7.     Tap into your network.

>> Full blog post on Taking the Leap

The CMC is pleased to announce its GSB Industry Transition Tool that allows you to track the full-time industry choices made by GSB students from the Classes of 2003-2011! It also covers entrepreneur choices for the Classes of 2009, 2010, and 2011. There are six tabs to the spreadsheet:

1. The pivot charts on the first two tabs answer two different questions:

• For a given pre-GSB industry, what industries did students select after graduation?
• For a given post-graduation industry, from what pre-GSB industries did students come from?

Filters at the top left enable you to focus on data by year, work authorization status, and entrepreneurs. Entrepreneur data is available only for the Classes of 2009, 2010, and 2011 but is the result of exhaustive research by Lisa Sweeney at the CMC. Her data covers nearly every single student entrepreneur during this time.

2. The pivot tables on the next two tabs present the same data in a tabular format. Students returning to the same pre-GSB industry after graduation are highlighted.

3. The next two pivot tables focus specifically on GSB entrepreneurs

• From which industries do entrepreneurs come before enrolling at the GSB?
• To which industries do entrepreneurs go after graduation?

4. The next table uses combined compensation data from the Classes of 2009, 2010, and 2011 to show how compensation transitions from pre-GSB to post-GSB.

Technical note                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

PC Excel 2010 users will see the filters automatically. If using PC Excel 2007, just click anywhere in the chart to see the filters. Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn’t support pivot tables in the Mac versions of Microsoft Office so you’ll see only a static chart. Please try again using a PC.

Thank you students!               

Thank you to all present and former GSB students (over 2,500) who supplied this anonymous data.  If you’ve accepted a job this year, just click on “Update My Status” at the top center of the Dashboard. You’ll help build this table for next year’s students!

» My Career Dashboard