Thursday, April 29, 2010

The network

There are so many great things about the LGO program, but one that may be hard to get a feel for without being here is the people you meet through the incredible network.  When you join LGO you become a member of the roughly 1000 current students and alumni as well as the broader Sloan and MIT communities. 

This semester I’m working with a team of 2011 LGO students on a project examining the relationship between General Motors and the United Auto Workers, specifically how negotiation dynamics changed leading up to bankruptcy.  The current Vice President of Labor Relations at GM is a graduate of LGO and the former VP graduated from the Sloan Fellows program.  Our team was able to reach out to both alumni and talk directly to them and their teams about what it was like to be at the negotiating table during the ‘05, ‘07, and ‘09 talks.  They both made time to take our phone calls, answer our emails, and helped us tremendously.  We were also fortunate enough to have Ron Bloom visit our class last fall to talk about the GM bankruptcy from the government’s perspective. 

It was incredible for our team to have access to the people who were at the epicenter of one of the most significant economic events of our lifetime.  An experience made possible by the LGO network.