A Friend, Big Ideas, and Team Building

(page 2 of 2)

Danvers Fleury
UNC - Chapel Hill
MBA Class of 2008

Andrew Durk

"Most Innovative MBA Team in the World"

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A select few saw through it: I've maintained a yearlong friendship with the couple that led the winning team from McGill University and found the business school yin to my yang in Challenge teammate Sara Sparks. She is remarkably strong where I am weak: a patient listener, a visual/brand genius, and a highly independent content producer. After a long talk we decided to go for it in 2007, promising each other a whole new approach.

This new approach meant building a team with talent synergy and the commitment to use process to inject creative friction. It meant committing to a work schedule, interdependent teams, and rotational leadership positions. For me it meant transitioning from the guy with all of the ideas to the guy who facilitates the team's excellence—a big shift.

Building a Team

I brought in classmate Tyler Mills, who would inevitably prove to make up for my management missteps with his irascible charm. Brian Stempeck came in with entrepreneurship chops, marketing savvy, and understated leadership—the perfect fit. Rachel Kuhn was the person who I considered to be the brightest in our class and a naturally gifted public speaker, as well as someone who would challenge ideas.

We had fun making it out of the first round of 287 teams to the final round of 10. We came up with some groundbreaking idea-creation processes and sacrificed a lot of time and effort to pushing ourselves and each other. In the end, as we were driving up to Charlottesville, Va., it occurred to me that the outcome didn't matter anymore: This was the best team I'd ever been on.

Whereas last year's team wasn't beloved, this year's was voted People's Champion by our fellow competitors. The final balloting came down to a statistical dead heat between our team, and competitors from the Indian School of Business and London Business School, but we narrowly captured the $20,000 and title of Most Innovative MBA Team in the World.

Heavy Schedule

Most second-years don't do case competitions—they're too busy trying to get a job. During preparation for the Innovation Challenge I interviewed for two positions that I was really excited about.

The first was with a local consulting firm that I'd had a lot of contact with throughout the beginning of the year; I found out that I didn't get a second-round interview with them several days after getting back from the challenge.

The real apple of my eye became a marketing manager position in the emerging products division of a computer company. It involves creating launch plans for new and innovative products, including but not limited to some environmentally responsible ones.

This division sponsored a product plan competition, effectively offering the chance to do the work of the marketing manager for a real-life product launch. Unfortunately, the three-week process had a 50% overlap with the Innovation Challenge. Boldly disregarding past lessons on overscheduling, I put together a new team and entered the contest. Three-quarters of the way through, during a team meeting, I found out that I didn't make the second round for that position either—you could have scraped me off the floor with a spatula. To make matters even more painful, I was having the time of my life working on the product!

I was tempted to quit. There was a mix of embarrassment and disappointment that made the thought of presenting to the judges, some of which had just decided to take a pass on my candidacy, a little tough to imagine. Then I had a good laugh with myself. When my old pal Andy used to have really tough episodes, he'd struggle with speaking and controlling his hands but still go out at night to meet people. What was my excuse? After all, if the judges hated the idea it would be further confirmation that I wasn't the right fit.

A teammate and I put in a good 18 hours each over the last two days to complete our 20-page submission. We put together a fun presentation and stuck to a fairly outside-the-box strategy. It turned out the judges liked it just fine—we won first place and $2,000.

Looking Forward

I still need to find a job, but I don't want to overlook all of the amazing things going on at school. Kenan-Flagler is a vibrant place and we've had a lot of exciting things happen this year with even more to come.

On the news front, earlier this year UNC Net Impact President Beth Richardson and I launched a sustainable-idea competition with our counterparts at Duke University; and UNC will be hosting its first private equity symposium in February.

In addition, my two favorite events are rapidly approaching: Casino Night and MBA Follies (check out this Brian Stempeck joint from last year's Follies, with 25,000-plus YouTube views in nine months).

Our third mod is approaching and I will be taking classes in sales, organizational development, and strategic innovation while preparing for a 14-day study abroad in India. I'm excited about finding a great job. As much as there is an empty part of me that echoes with sorrow every time I think about Andy, I feel like I'm still learning from him every day—in an MBA community with people who embody his values and have become new, lifelong friends.

This post is dedicated in loving memory of Andrew Durk.

Fleury is a member of UNC - Chapel Hill's MBA class of 2008.

Interested in UNC? Feel free to e-mail Danvers Fleury any thoughts or questions you may have.