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4 Real ROI Stories from EMBA Alumni and Current Students

At Neeley, we know that the EMBA program is no small investment, which is why we want to make sure our students see a significant return on that investment. We’re thrilled to hear countless stories of students putting classroom principles to work in the real world before they even graduate. Here are some of our favorite ROI stories, including a recent success from a current student.

October 24, 2018

At Neeley, we know that the EMBA program is no small investment, which is why we want to make sure our students see a significant return on that investment. We’re thrilled to hear countless stories of students putting classroom principles to work in the real world before they even graduate. Here are some of our favorite ROI stories, including a recent success from a current student.

Real ROI Stories

Joe Nuszkowski, Class of ’19
Divisional Vice President, Protective Life

“I work within the Asset Protection Division, and we had this problem in my organization for around 12 years: Roughly 80 percent of new dealer sign-ups had incomplete paperwork, creating a bottleneck within our operations. We’d been using an antiquated, paper-driven process, with tons of opportunity for human error. Every time we had an issue, we just added another paper form. 

“The supply chain class in the Neeley EMBA program provided me with the frameworks I needed to help make change while making it successful. I already had talented people on my team who understood frameworks, but now I can speak their language and make it work. We evaluated where we could get improvement today, as well as a long-term vision for an automated solution. We mapped it out start to finish. The sales division says this is great improvement and looks forward to implementing automation. I’m guessing once all the technology is implemented, it could save each sales rep between 2-3 hours every week – and that’s over 20 sales reps.

“I’ve been able to apply those kinds of class learnings from finance to analytics – like using a tableau or something else our organization didn’t use before. Those are really ‘wow’ moments.”

 

Jarie Bradley, Class of ’15
Chief People Officer, CitySquare

“Number one, I received a promotion nine months into program. And that was due to one of the strategy projects I had within the program. Then my president came to me near the end of the program and said, ‘We’re happy with your HR work; we want you to do some work with workforce development.’ So now my role encompasses both HR and workforce development. We’ve experienced 25 percent growth, we have new sponsorships. And that’s definitely due to the skills I got from the program.

“Also, I became great friends with my coach, a fabulous lady by the name of Paulette. She walked me through my 360 evaluation and really got me to own my stuff, and helped me transform as a leader. And she facilitates leadership cohorts for the City of Fort Worth, and ended up seeing my boss at a function, and she told my boss, ‘You did right by promoting her. Make sure you take care of her.’ It’s so funny, she’s such a small but mighty lady, and my boss is still like, ‘I’ll never forget what Paulette told me about you.’ So the program has all types of spillover effects. I will never regret the time I have spent.”

 

Jesus Miranda, Class of ’17
Campus president, Universal Technical Institute

“I proposed a strategy to my organization, and they’re implementing much of it over 3,200 people in the organization. I wouldn’t have been able to do that without the program. I sit in meetings with controllers, accounting, finance, and I hold my own and even ask better questions than they do sometimes. Since the program, we've grown two and a half fold in seven and a half years.

“But while ROI is a good step you can measure, I think your growth as a person is really where you need it. I feel like a better father, I feel like a better husband, I feel like a better worker, it just made my character change in the program, and with the amount of workload that's there – it's there, don't think it's easy – it forces you to learn time management, forces you to make decisions, forces you to prioritize in your life. You'll come out of that program changed for the better.”

 

Jamie “Opie” Fair, Class of ’15
COO, Agile Management Enterprises

“We evaluate companies to buy or invest in, and we use the Strategy Diamond, Mullins’ Model, and other frameworks taught in the program every day. We saved $90,000 on one acquisition using negotiation tactics from Rita Kosnik’s course.

“We were dealing with this other potential acquisition. While negotiating, they anchored at a price. It wasn’t a bad price, but it wasn’t ideal. We used Dr. Kosnik’s negotiation materials and the BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement) to put together a two-page document showing all we would implement and why it was important, then said we’d agree to their price. Then they came back and said, ‘We’ll increase the price $200K just to work with you.’ The EMBA would be a value at twice the price.”

 

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