A Day in the Life of a Coach: Kimberly Cochran, Team 5 – June 18, 2010
5:30 am– “Is it already time to wake up?” seems to be the first thought in my head these past few days. I’ve just gotten a whole five hours of sleep, which is actually an upgrade from the night before. It’s going to be a really busy day, but I’m really excited because my team is presenting their project today for Oasis Center. It’s the last time that my original team, Turnkey Consulting, will be working together. I’m already missing them! We’ve grown so comfortable together and we have all become friends. It’s ok, though, we agreed we’re going to have a reunion in the fall!
11:30 am – Presentations are over. Whew, what a relief! My team placed fifth, but I’m so proud of what they accomplished. They came up with a great idea and presented it well. Sometimes your solution just doesn’t fit with the client. But that’s just life. And I’m so glad that the students have the opportunity to experience that in Accelerator before they head out into the real world. They had a great marketing campaign that I’m confident Oasis Center will use for their new youth movement. Watch out for user-generated ads sometime in the next year! Now time to grab a bite to eat and take a break for a few minutes. I love the secret stash of leftover brownies in the kitchen downstairs. But, shhhhh, don’t tell. It’s also time to think about the Bridgestone project coming up next. The marketing guys will be here for Q&A and I need to make sure that they’re taken care of. I hope my students have some good questions for them.
1:45 pm– Uh oh, Bridgestone is here early and students are still rolling in from lunch. I am the “valet girl” for this afternoon, so I have to drive the client’s car to the parking garage. I’m saying a little prayer that I can make it one block without a scratch!
4:00 pm– Our second Bridgestone session is coming to an end. My team has a cool idea and the Bridgestone execs seem to like it. We’re planning the Powerpoint slides, Storyboard, and finalizing research. It seems to all be coming together. We had a lot of great questions for Phil Pacsi, VP of Consumer Marketing, and we’re really looking forward to presenting to them next week.
5:20 pm– I’m sitting in Brian Griffith’s session on Team Dynamics. Professor Griffith has a lot of great advice: Address an issue at the time it happens and with the person directly. Don’t complain about your colleagues, it makes you look bad. Realize what type of personality you have and how that fits with your group. Know how to give and receive feedback. Wow, I hope the students are really soaking this in. I wished I had this knowledge when I was in the working world! Have you seen the movie Office Space? Yeah, enough said.
6:05 pm – What is that smell?! Do I smell pizza? Dinner is Jet’s pizza. I walk into the team room and find worn-down students who are a little tired and very hungry. I didn’t even finish the whole world “Pizz….” before they jumped up and ran downstairs. I’ve never seen them so excited. Lesson learned today: To incent students to do work, give them junk food. Works every time.
8:30 pm – Medical banking, anyone? Anyone? Bueller? We just spent the past two hours trying to figure out a way to the value propositions for medical banking to tech companies. We have a lot of research to do. Wow, this is a really interesting project. I have a new team now and I’m so proud of them for plowing through this healthcare issue. They really do pay attention to politics and what’s going on in the industry.
Well, I’m headed home – early!!! I can’t believe I’ll be home by 9. My boyfriend is waiting for me at my apartment. I haven’t seen him in a month and he’s here for the weekend. I can’t wait to hand over my honey-do list: Can you do my laundry, puh-leeeeeease? Oh, the life of an Accelerator coach.