Parent Letter from Accelerator 2007 Participant

Parent Letter from Accelerator 2007 Participant. 06.23.08

Today I recieved this letter from the parent of one of our Accelerator participants from last summer. He had been following this year's blog and shared the following. With Mr. Puchon's permission, I have posted his comments below. For folks who wonder why we as the staff and faculty of Accelerator keep the hours we do, this letter pretty well sums it up...

Dr. Burcham:

I was so pleased with what the 2007 Accelerator Program did for my son last year. I kept your web site bookmarked and now check in often to observe what all the fine young men and women are doing this 2008 program year. I can see it is every bit as intense as last year. It has brought back great memories of following my son's time from last year. What a wonderful experience and great way to learn real life business practices. I have told a countless number people about this program.

My son was debating with himself on two options for summer studies last year. I am glad, as is he, that he chose the Vanderbilt program. He never imagined going in what an experience it would turn out to be. He was a changed person by the conclusion, you could see the confidence in himself and a proud sense of achievement at the closing dinner.

Remind the participants to enjoy this wonderful and rewarding time, as it will pass quickly. As you know, the time and effort they are asked to put forth now will be invaluable to them for their future. Keep up the great work with these fine young minds. I wish you and the Accelerator staff many more years of future success.

Sincerely,
Charles J Puchon Sr. Proud Parent of Michael Puchon 2007 Accelerator Participant

Day 14. June 19, 2008

Day 14. June 19, 2008

Day 14 was one of our busiest days yet. We began with a 7:00 breakfast with flexible arrival times in order to provide students with a little extra time to exercise. Our day then promptly started at 8:00 to run through their Bridgestone presentations one last time before the big event.
As 9:00 came, the nervous tension dissipated and the students headed to the Vanderbilt Law School Conference room to greet the team from Bridgestone. 8 representatives of the Bridgestone marketing and environmental teams were on hand to evaluate the work of our Accelerator teams. Each team had 10 minutes to make their “pitch” to Bridgestone. After much deliberation and a close race between Team 4 and Team 5 – Bridgestone declared Team 5 the winner. James Fuqua Ami Gosalia, Aubrey Hammond, and Michael Shatto presented Team 5’s highly polished marketing campaign with ease, immensely impressing the Bridgestone team. Other members of the team include: Andrew Brady, David Dar, Jessica Decker, Sarah Leggett, Sarah Russell and Jeffrey Taylor. The team coach is Ryan Igleheart.

The teams ended the session by voting for their MVPs: Team 1: Marc Levit, Team 2: Brittany Gowers, Team 3: Zach Barrett, Team 4: Tyler Weaks, Team 5: Sarah Leggett, Team 6: Tori Richard & Elliot Steinbaum, Team 7: Chris Harris, and Team 8: Ivan Au. Congratulations to each of these individuals for being recognized by their teams.

With the presentations coming to an end around 11:30, everyone grabbed a quick box lunch before heading to the Gresham Smith & Partners launch. The students were delighted for another off-campus launch, this element adds to the excitement of the program. As our buses arrived in downtown Nashville, we were guided to the Civic Design Center to meet the Gresham team: James Bearden (President), Patrick Gilbert (Senior Associate Architect leading our project) and John Houghton (Senior Planner leading our project). They were joined by David Koellein, Development Associate from Giarratana Development.

Our Mission: Gresham, Smith and Partners (GS&P) has been retained to prepare a master redevelopment plan for a property located at the site of the old Thermal Plant. The 12-acre site was originally slated to be the new baseball stadium site, but that plan was unable to get funding. Given it’s proximity to the new pedestrian bridge and the downtown area, the site has significant potential and has prompted area developers to re-evaluate the site.

Accelerator teams are to assist GS&P with the decision, evaluate the market characteristics of the property and recommend a course of action for highest and best use of the property. Teams will have 20 working hours to complete the task.

At the end of the briefing, everyone walked to the pedestrian bridge, which overviews the plot of land the students have been asked to develop.

Then arriving back at Owen, our Accelerator teams were directed back to the law school for an briefing by Tony Giarrantana, one of Nashville’s leading developers. Tony shared his view on real estate in today’s market and potential uses of the 12-acre site.

For dinner, our teams devoured a delicious Jerusalem chicken dish and then began dress rehearsals for the Caterpillar presentations that will be tomorrow morning. Each team practiced their pitch in front of a panel of faculty (Kimberly Pace, Cherrie Clark, John English, Carol Barry and David Furse) for last minute critique and review.

As the night came to an end, the students, coaches, and staff headed to their respective rooms for some much-needed rest. We closed the day around 10:00 PM – tomorrow is another big day…

Day 8. June 13, 2008

Day 8. June 13, 2008

We begin week 2 with a 7:00 AM where Accelerator teams get a briefing from their coaches about today’s launch of Project 4: Bridgestone. Teams select their team leader for this round of projects. Kerri Glennon will lead Team 1, Brittany Gowers will lead Team 2, Lindsey Bodenstab will lead Team 3, Samantha Webb will lead Team 4, Aubrey Hammond will lead Team 5, Tori Richard will lead Team 6, Chris Harris will lead Team 7, and Eric Jones will lead Team 8.

Professor Cherrie Clark then ran a 1-hour studio beginning at 8:00 AM on various tools consultants use to assist clients in understand data and making recommendations. The Bridgestone team arrived about 8:30 AM to set up the launch of their Project.

At 9:00 AM, the Accelerator teams moved to the Vanderbilt Law School auditorium to meet the Bridgestone / Firestone executive team and to learn about Bridgestone’s challenge to Accelerator. The firm has invested significantly in environmentally friendly initiatives and processes – yet consumer knowledge of their work in this area is very limited. The team has asked the Accelerator teams to evaluate their target demographic market in the following way:
As "going green" becomes more and more prevalent and mainstream, questions emerge for Bridgestone based on the firm’s unique position and past environmental accomplishments. The company has made significant investments in an effort to establish an identity as an environmentally friendly firm, but these efforts have not resonated with the consumer to the degree that the company had hoped. Bridgestone has asked the Accelerator teams to complete an analysis and determination of Bridgestone Firestone’s position within this strategic landscape. Who is the target “green” audience (general public, first-time buyers, "true blue" green consumers)? What green aspects of the Bridgestone business would resonate with the target audience? Each team will be expected to develop specific recommendations for furthering employee and customer awareness of environmental aspects of the company that will positively impact its reputation and respect. What existing and/or new programs will be most effective going forward and how should the company implement or grow the right efforts that have real impact?

The Bridgestone team stayed for lunch with the Accelerator participants and then visited each of the teams in their “war rooms” for Q&A.
At 3:30 PM, we switched gears and teams focused for the rest of the afternoon on their deliverables for American Airlines – a product for the SME market.

Dinner arrived at 6:00 PM. Following dinner, the Accelerator teams spent the rest of the evening working on their initiatives for Caterpillar Financial. We cleared the building about 10 PM. Our teams clocked 14 hours today in their quest for total Acceleration….

Day 7. June 12, 2008

Day 7. June 12, 2008

At 7:00 AM our Accelerator teams joined executives from 42 businesses for a Business Breakfast Social. Participating companies included Aegis Health Group, Blakeford, ConduIT Corp, Dollar General, Gallery One, HealthStream, HCA, Jefferies, Magazines.com, Marsh USA, S3 Consulting, Target, Tiffany & Co, UBS, Worth Properties, Sprout, Regions Bank, TotalPrint, Schneider Electric and many others.

At 8:00 AM, we proceeded to the Averbuch auditorium for an economics session with Professor Luke Froeb. This session was followed by a studio on reading and understanding financial statements (Balance Sheet, Income Statements, Cash Flow Statements) by Professor Germain Boer.

After lunch, the Accelerator teams spent the afternoon working on their consulting projects for Caterpillar Financial. These presentations will be presented to the Caterpillar team next Friday AM.

At 3:00 PM, Jim Bradford, Dean of the Owen Graduate School of Management spoke to the group on leadership. He shared his experiences on Boards of Directors and the challenges of being a CEO in a public firm.

We ended the day with an intensive working session for American Airlines that included a working dinner. Teams are gathering data on the travel needs of small businesses (known as the SME market). They will use this data to create a package of American Airlines services for this specific market.

Today ends our first full week of Accelerator - the teams clocked 13.5 work hours today, bringing our first week to 73.5 total work hours. Tomorrow we will begin Week 2 and the true Acceleration begins…