Summer Business Bootcamp

The Summer Business Program at Holy Cross is a four week program that immerses Holy Cross students in the world of business. Each day seminars are presented on topics ranging from accounting and finance to executive leadership to problem solving within a business. I took part in this year’s program which took place on the Holy Cross campus from May 27 to June 20. While these lessons are an essential part of the program, the most interesting part of the four weeks was meeting the Holy Cross alums who returned to campus to teach and give dinner talks.

For instance, Jim Keyes ’77 came back to the Hill to give a dinner talk on adapting to change in the business world. Now, I had no idea who Jim Keyes was before that evening, and it would probably be a stretch to say that he is a household name. But I’m sure most people are familiar with his work. After graduating from Holy Cross, Jim worked as the CEO of 7 Eleven, and after a brief retirement, took on his current position as CEO of Blockbuster.

As luck would have it, Jim sat next to me during the dinner. I couldn’t have asked for better dinner conversation. Mr. Keyes is one of those increasingly few people who truly love what they do. The man works something like 70 or 80 hours a week, but I don’t think he considers it work at all. He also has some really interesting ideas about how to expand Blockbuster in an age dominated by online rental services. Add to it all that he piloted his own private jet to get to the dinner (38 minutes from New York to Worcester) and you can begin to see why Mr. Keyes is such an interesting guy.

Of course, the capstones of the program are the presentations which each team gives before a panel of executives. All students in the program are assigned to a team of four groupmates and given an assignment such as developing a new product or marketing campaign. My teammates and I were responsible for creating a strategy for General Electric to acquire Vestas, a company that specializes in manufacturing wind turbines. We analyzed the financial data, corporate structure, and trends in the market for both companies in order to craft a pitch for the panel. Ultimately it was this experience of working in a team to pitch our proposal before the panel that was the most beneficial part of the program. It made for great experience that will definitely translate well when I enter the business world.

Lastly, I would be remiss to talk about the Summer Business Program and not mention Professor David Chu, who runs the program as part of the prebusiness program and the Ciocca Office of Entrepreneurial Studies. Professor Chu is the lifeblood of the program and does a wonderful job of bringing in successful Holy Cross alums to come in and share their experiences in business. Included in this list of alums (more than 30 participated in this year’s program) is Art Ciocca ’59, who played a major role in helping me land an internship in Silicon Valley and has been key to the founding of the entrepreneurial studies program at Holy Cross. All of these passionate alumni, and the enthusiasm displayed by Professor Chu, are what made the program more than just another series of lectures. It really was an excellent crash course into the world of business.

Ryan Wiik ’09 is an economics and political science major from San Diego.