Positive Energy

Yesterday I spent all day interviewing with Positive Energy, a startup software company that helps residential energy users consume less electricity, natural gas, and other forms of energy. It’s one of the few opportunities I’ve found that would really marry my passions for addressing the global energy challenge and innovating game-changing software.

Before the interviews even started, I had a good omen: The major tenant of the building where PE is located is Sparta, Inc., where my father spent much of his professional career designing LASER-based optical guidance systems. I haven’t thought about Sparta in a long time and seeing its familiar logo (slightly adapted from when he worked there in the 80s) warmed my heart.
The interviews themselves went well. I had discussions with the CEO, VP of Product (to whom I would report), program/process manager, product managers for different products, and lead software engineer. The software engineer had his chocolate lab with him and he joined us for the interview, which I considered to be another great omen. Furthermore, PE’s offices are within walking distance of the original Red Hot & Blue, one of my favorite BBQ joints of all time, even though now it’s been overcommercialized and franchised around the country. The VP of Product took me out to lunch there, which further fostered the “good” feeling I have about this company.
The questions that came my way were very diverse: experiential, design thought exercises, brain teasers, and other funky, “out there” conversation catalysts. My impression after a very full day is that A. the company is really trying to hit it out of the park and significantly affect energy demand, B. the team is smart/high-end, and C. it seems like a good fit where my participation could create value for both the company and for myself.
Hopefully they will see things the same way. Even if they don’t, however, I’m glad to know that such companies exist. As I’ve blogged before, I think the “solution” to the global energy challenge has to be one that also makes good business sense, otherwise it just won’t be sustainable.
And speaking of the global energy challenge, Gore et al have already offered up a public “challenge” to the Obama administration: US carbon neutrality in 10 years! I love it! Nearly impossible, worthwhile challenges have always inspired me and I view the energy challenge as very synonymous with the space race of the 60s. “Why reduce energy consumption, streamline transmission, and produce energy from renewable sources? . . . Why does Rice play Texas? . . . We choose to achieve a carbon-neutral energy infrastructure within a decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard!” The stakes are higher in this challenge and I am committed to doing what I can to help ensure victory.

Obama!

Washington DC is on fire. This town is ablaze with excitement after Obama’s victory last night. I was too jet lagged to stay awake for all the returns but he was ahead when I nodded off. Mom woke me up just after midnight for his victory speech, which was inspiring.

I like John McCain (although I liked him a lot more before he changed positions for this election) and I respect the hell out of his endurance as a POW. Palin kind of freaked me out, though, and I really think Obama sends the best signal worldwide about a change in stance for the US. I’m happy for the Obama victory and I hope he can live up ot the great expectations we all have for him.
I also hope that he will deliver on campaign promises about energy reform, which should benefit Positive Energy, where I am about to interview for a Senior Product Manager position!

Final ICP Presentation

Today we woke up early, hopped on a train to Zurich, and delivered our final presentation to our ICP client. Despite having only one week to prepare (due to scheduling constraints), the presentation went well and the client seemed exceedingly pleased. They took us out for a nice, long lunch on a hilltop overlooking Zurich and the atmosphere was very pleasant. One of our client stakeholders is a member of their Board of Directors and may invite us to make the presentation to their entire Board in December.

This project was, for lack of an eloquent descriptor, awesome. Four students from four different continents helped a global chemical manufacturer optimize its supply chain. Despite none of us having chemical industry experience or supply chain experience, we were able to identify and help realize over CHF 200m of value.
The best part of the project was that it soon became evident that the client’s challenges weren’t specific to supply chain; their real problem was change management. Our “solutions,” helping them implement corporate initiatives in a globally decentralized organization with greater success, aren’t particular to supply chain or the chemical manufacturing industry. The learning we took from this project can be applied across industries and functions and I’m sure it will be very valuable throughout each of our careers. Real world, real learning.
Similarly, I appreciated the opportunity to work with a small, very diverse group for an extended, multi-phase project with several deliverables. It was critically important to use each person’s skillset in the most appropriate way, manage different individual priorities, and address both intra- and inter-group dynamics. I won’t claim that we did everything perfectly but I do believe that we learned a great deal and improved a lot throughout the project. Again: real world, real learning.
Now, with the ICP behind me (sort of–there are still several wrap-up to-do items), I’m flying to Washington DC tomorrow for a final interview with Positive Energy. I’m excited to arrive just about the time that presidential election returns start rolling in. Go Obama, go Skelly, and no on Prop 8!

Halloween

Happy Halloween (a little belated) to all! As many of you know, Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I love putting a lot of effort into an inventive costume and having fun with others who have done the same.

This year my costume creativity was limited a little by lack of time (Our final ICP presentation is tomorrow!) and costume resources. In Houston I knew all the party supply and costume shops I could visit for specific costume elements. In Lausanne, though, I just haven’t familiarized myself that well with the costume supply infrastructure yet.
So this year I resolved to make a costume given the constraint of using exclusively materials I already owned. This limited me significantly since I really don’t have much in the closet I call an apartment. As I perused my wardrobe, however, I was inspired by my cold weather running gear: black and bright blue spandex. Hmm, I could probably do something with that. I ran a Google image search on “black blue spandex” to see which characters might employ similar outfits but I didn’t find much. My best option turned out to be Nightwing, the superhero that evolved from Robin, Batman’s sidekick.
I had no emotional bond to Nightwing, however, so I wasn’t too keen on it. Looking at pictures of him on wikipedia, though, reminded me of another character to whom I did have a strong bond: Subzero of Mortal Kombat fame. Nick and I used to spend hours and hours playing Mortal Kombat on his Sega Genesis. My favorite character from the game was Raiden, but unfortunately my running clothes didn’t look at all like his outfit.
So I went as Subzero, covering my face and head such that only my eyes were revealed. The Halloween party itself was pretty tame. The organizers did a great job of converting the IMD “dungeons” (where we spent most of our lives during the first part of the year) into  real dungeons. People got into it and it was fun to guess who was behind the costumes. My face covering forced me to drink through a straw all night, which made taking shots interesting, but I managed.
Still, I turned in by midnight–not exactly my Halloween party experience of yore! It’s good that I did, though, as I was able to wake up early today, rehearse my ICP presentation, go for a run, and finish Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which is my favorite of the books so far. Tonight I’ll head to bed early again as we have an early train to catch to our client’s headquarters in Zurich and I’d like to run through the presentation one more time before we leave.

Electives

This weekend I finished reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, my favorite (so far) of the movies. It was a great read and I’m really enjoying the extra depth that the books provide–both of the plot and of the character development. Although it may sound blasphemous, I find that there are some scenes the movies actually portray “better” than the books, especially in Prisoner of Azkaban. Director Alfonso Cuarón really elaborated cinematographically on some of the J.K. Rowling’s ideas to good effect.

One element that I enjoyed about Prisoner of Azkaban is that it is the first year that the students choose electives. They no longer all take the same courses and can now specialize in the subjects that interest them. In less than two weeks we will begin electives here at IMD as well. Only instead of “Divination” and “Care of Magical Creatures” our options are more like “Advanced Group Dynamics” and “Managing Change.” They aren’t quite as exotic sounding, but I’m still looking forward to them.
Following is a list of our available electives. The ones I will be taking are in bold:
Course 1:
Introduction to Advanced Group Dynamics – Jack Wood (our Leadership professor)
Economic Dilemma – Economic Opportunities – Ralf Boschek (our Industry/Company Analysis & Economics professor)
Course 2:
Entrepreneurship – A Longer View – Joachim Schwass
Business History – Lessons from the Past – Stewart Hamilton (our Accounting professor)
Global Corporate Strategy – James Henderson (our Strategy professor), Cyril Bouquet
Course 3:
Managing Change – Maury Peiperl (our Leading People in Organizations professor), Anand Narasimhan
Special Topics in Private Equity and Venture Capital – Benoit Leleux (our Entrepreneurship professor)
Turnarounds: Tools for Recovering Corporate Wealth – Jean-Frederic Mognetti
Course 4:
Advanced Supply Chain – Corey Billington (our Production and Operations Management professor)
Advanced Finance – Didier Cossin
Managing Information, People, and IT Capabilities for Business Value – Don Marchand
For most of the course blocks I was torn between two or more courses. Like Hermione Granger in Prisoner of Azkaban, I really wanted a way to take all of them. However, lacking a time turner, I’ve had to resort to more mundane methods to bone up on each subject. For example, in Course 4, I’ve been able to learn a great deal of the Advanced Supply Chain content during the ICP because Corey is our faculty advisor. For the other courses I may just procure the required readings and get to them when I can.
Regardless, there is still an ICP to finish before I can start really thinking about electives.

Phase IV

We have now entered the final phase of our ICP. This is where the rubber really hits the road and we focus on how to implement all of the grandiose recommendations we have made. For scheduling reasons with the client, our final presentation will be this Monday so we really only have half the allocated time to reach all of our goals. No worries, though; I’m sure we’ll come through.

On top of this, we’re operating a man down as Daniel’s son is being born as I write. I hope all goes well with the birth so we’ll have something even more important than the completion of the ICP to celebrate next week!
Last night I took a break from ICP, pre-reading for electives, and my career search in order to join 30 of my classmates at a dinner celebrating Randy’s birthday. It was a lot of fun just sitting, eating, conversing, joking around, speculating about the future, and sharing good times. I probably haven’t done enough of this socializing this year and it felt good to spend time with my friends as opposed to my colleagues.

Lausanne Marathon

Today I ran the most I have ever run in the same day, just under 9 miles. It wasn’t all at once, though, because it came while running “bandit” for my classmates as they finished the Lausanne Marathon and Half Marathon. This means that I waited for them a few miles before the finish line and ran alongside them to help motivate them through the final and most difficult leg.

I first ran bandit for Katie Ban in last year’s Houston Half Marathon. It was a good time and seemed to be appreciated so I offered it up to my running classmates this year. They enthusiastically accepted the offer and I managed to recruit a co-bandit in Mathias, my French teammate from my startup group.
We jogged out first to meet Max, our Russian teammate also from the startup group, about three miles from the finish of the marathon (in front of the Olympic museum). He was hurting so we tried to distract him with jokes and urged him on. He finished just under his target time of 4 hours.
Then we doubled back and met up with Sergei, my Belarussian teammate from the first building block, about two miles from the finish of the half marathon (also in front of the Olympic museum). He was in strong form so we just paced him and tried to spur him on at the end. He finished well under his target time of 2 hours.
We then turned around to go back for Alex, my Chinese teammate also from the first building block, who had expected to come in far behind Sergei. Before I could make my way through the throng, however, Alex had arrived, just over 2 hours, and apparently hadn’t needed any additional motivation.
Even if our participation didn’t make one iota of difference, it felt good to support our friends. We’ve all been through a lot together so supporting each other in our various endeavors comes naturally. I expect it will continue long after graduation in December.

Google Interview

Yesterday morning I boarded the 8:20 AM train to Zurich. I’ve done this a few times before to go visit our ICP client. This time, however, I was going to interview with Google for a Product Manager position.

I arrived in Zurich around 10:30 and used the Google Maps Walking Directions feature from my mobile phone to find my way to the Google office. The office was fun and kind of over-the-top but not quite as much so as I expected. Perhaps my expectations had been artificially inflated by all the press this office received (at least here in Switzerland) when it opened back in January. Still, it was pretty cool: lots of game rooms, snack rooms, coffee bars, a fitness center, an aquarium-lined power nap room, all kinds of funky meeting rooms (with Star Wars-based names) and developer areas. I tested out the fire pole that you can take from one floor to another but didn’t have a chance to use the slide into the cafeteria. The cafeteria was awesome, definitely IMD-level, and it serves three meals a day. I don’t have to tell you how much I would take advantage of that benefit!
I had five interviews during the day, four with product managers and one with a software engineer. They were all very different, some focusing on product design, some on software technology challenges, some on strategy and management, and some on analytical brain teasers. Most of my interviewers were from different countries, they all seemed very sharp, and, best of all, I never really felt like I was being interviewed. Instead we had very engaging discussions about interesting and challenging problems. There was no “right answer” to any of the questions I was asked all day, just mutually participatory discussions, many of which left me feeling really excited. It really felt like the discussions Alex (or others) and I would frequently have about the future of products, technologies, and consumer behaviors. Sometimes those discussions would be about near-term ideas and sometimes they were a little more science fiction-y. Google seems like one of the few organizations with so much talent/resources/users that it can take real steps toward making the sci fi ideas reality.
At the end of the interviews I was informed that I had accessed the secret bonus round and would have two more interviews with Product Management Directors. Although I characterized Italians as lazy to one of them who turned out to be Italian himself (despite having a very German-sounding name!), I thoroughly enjoyed those discussions as well.
I stumbled a few times throughout the day. For example, some of my interviewers challenged me about my stated objective of helping to change the world of energy and how on earth working at Google would accomplish that. My responses weren’t terribly eloquent or convincing there; shame on me for not preparing better.
Still, after seven interviews, I finished the day at 7 PM feeling very positive. These really felt like “my kind of people.” In my experience there’s a certain kind of magic that comes from a great team. Someone starts a discussion with an idea, others critique it, react to it, and add their own ideas. The level of frenetic excitement rises until everyone decides that the idea has to be pursued and then they all get down to business. This was the type of entropy I felt in my discussions all day, which was a very positive sign.
In many ways, yesterday was like my IMD interview day. I came in not really knowing what to expect. The day was set up to simulate some of the daily challenges encountered by the position for which I was interviewing. I had great, enlightening discussions with a bunch of really smart, diverse people. I left still thinking about the discussions and generating new ideas that I wished I had brought up during the interviews but feeling energized, able to visualize myself contributing to and benefiting from such an environment, and hoping they felt the same way. Oh, right, and I had an awesome lunch! So, we shall see!
After the interviews I met up with a friend of mine in Zurich for dinner (overlooking the city at night–beautiful!) and drinks at a cigar bar by the train station. Zurich seems like a really nice town that has the amenities that come with a major urban area (very international airport and accomplished arts, for example) without many of the drawbacks (high crime, for example). It’s certainly not a cheap place to live but it also has one of the highest quality of life rankings in the world. Again, we shall see!

Solar-powered Clothing

Tuesday marked the end of Phase III of our ICP. The presentation went well and it felt great to move on to our fourth and final phase. Before that begins next week, however, we had the rest of this week off for recruiting activities.

I didn’t waste any time and less than one hour after our presentation I was at the Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces at EPFL. At the invitation of Carole Grätzel (Rice PhD in Physical Chemistry) and her husband, Michael, I toured the lab and learned all about Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells (DSC).
It is absolutely amazing what they are doing; I watched in awe as they showed elementary school children how to power a fan by shining a lamp onto layers of raspberry puree and pencil shavings. This simple process is at the heart of DSC and its implications are tremendous:
1.It doesn’t use silicon so is impervious to price fluctuations and raw material shortages due to the semiconductor industry.
2. The photovoltaic medium is essentially an “ink” that can be “printed” on many different materials. This means that no longer are solar cells relegated to big, ugly, heavy panels. Instead they can be integrated into the windows of your house (transparently), the body of your car, or the fabric of your clothing.
3. The fabrication process is cheap and can leverage the skill/scale of major printers.
4. The cells perform well in diffuse light so you don’t need huge arrays in areas with massive illumination; they work in the rest of the world.
Can you imagine the possibilities? Mobile, wireless power wherever you go. Self-powered houses, office buildings, and vehicles. Cars sitting in parking lots all day becoming net energy suppliers. That’s all still out there a bit but it’s not as far off as you might think. One of the companies that licences the lab’s patents is G24 Innovations and they are already proving the concept. Very exciting! This is the type of game-changing technology I want to be part of.