It could have been a scene right out of The Apprentice: two teams plus a Fortune 500 company's executive staff on presentation day. But instead of "You're fired," the signature phrase would have been, "You're hired." The two teams consisted of Notre Dame MBA students, including Jeff Haddon and Adam Rieck. Together, they worked an inventory management project at OfficeMax in Naperville, Ill., as part of a live case during Interterm Intensives.
Interterm courses, designed to help Notre Dame students combine classroom learning with on-the-job experience, often include problem solving opportunities. This project was no different. At the outset, the teams were given inventory data from one of OfficeMax's partners. After examining the data and investigating why some stores were out of specific SKUs, the teams were charged with formulating their findings and recommendations and presenting them. "The project really helped me to understand the issues that retail stores have in terms of inventory management. I found the challenges to be very exciting," says Adam.
"The class was very demanding and fascinating. We enjoyed the tremendous opportunity to work on a meaningful project for a first-class organization, and to present our findings and recommendations to the company's most senior executives," says Jeff. "Being on site for a week was a great immersion experience and confirmed my desire to work for them."
At the end of the week, the two teams presented their findings. Both Jeff and Adam walked away with more than an education; each had a full-time offer from OfficeMax. Adam is now part of the inventory management group in Naperville; Jeff, the marketing and product development group.
