“Road warrior” Stacey Long of Velcro was more likely to Skype with classmates on group projects than meet with them live.
Applies Monday What She Learns Saturday
Stacey Long had wanted to get a master’s degree for the longest time. She also understood that the demands of a full-time sales position at Velcro were keeping her on the road too much to accommodate a full-time business degree. So she made the decision to enroll in the Whittemore School’s of Business and Economics’ Executive MBA (EMBA) program.
During the week, she serves as a business unit manager for the Manchester company’s consumer product channels, working with bricks-and-mortar heavyweights such as Walmart and Home Depot as well as online retailers. Her responsibilities include implementing financial metrics and tracking inventory and sales ratios.
Every other weekend, she takes EMBA classes in Portsmouth, N.H. Right from the start, she had one major expectation for the program. “I wanted to be able to apply on Monday what I learned on Saturday,” says Long. One of her first team projects at WSBE was to use financial accounting to pull together a balance sheet and income statement for a hypothetical company like the ones she works with during the week.
Best of all, the EMBA program has allowed maximal flexibility to Long, who is more likely to Skype with classmates on group projects than meet with them live. For example, while on business in Santiago, Chile, she and her classmates in a technology innovation class had to select a technology venture that hadn’t yet been turned into a commercial product. (Long’s group chose smart electrical transformers that could one day, replace traditional ones.) “One of our team members was in New Hampshire, another was in North Carolina, and I was in Chile. We video conferenced on Thursday and presented on Saturday.”
Says Long, Velcro was founded upon innovation and that value is deep within our culture. They’ve been very supportive of me at the business school.”
Originally published by:
The Whittemore WIRE
