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Rewards of risk
 
|
|
| Hope
Eyre ’99MBA Senior Manager, Business Development, IBM Alliance, Capgemini Washington, D.C. |
|
It was a Sunday night in 1999 and Hope
Eyre ‘99MBA, who had just graduated with an MBA from Goizueta
Business School, was anticipating the beginning of a new work week and
her first day on the job as a human resources consultant for SAP, the
German Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software company. The one-time
software technical writer had earned a business degree with the daunting
ambition of changing careers, possibly to application development. This
was her first chance to see if she could cut it. Then the telephone rang.
It was SAP human resources wanting to know if Eyre would, instead, like
to work as the exclusive assistant to one of the company’s executives.
Could she fly to Central Florida the next day to meet with him? “I
thought, this is the strangest thing,” recalls Eyre, who has an undergraduate
degree in journalism from Purdue University. “But I really didn’t
want to be a consultant, so I agreed.”
Opportunity comes calling when you least expect it. As it turns out, Eyre’s
new boss, Chris Larsen, ran sales for SAP’s North American manufacturing
sector and he needed an assistant to help with the launch of SAP’s
main brand of software, SAP Business Suite. He chose Eyre because she,
like him, had spent time working at Dun & Bradstreet Software. Her
new job description: To do whatever Larsen needed. “He built this
executive team, and we basically started a little company to launch this
flagship brand,” recalls Eyre. “Wherever the executive team
went, I went. Chris Larsen introduced me to all of the top executives
in the firm. It was very intimidating, but it taught me how you act and
network at an executive level. We wrote marketing plans and a business
plan. After six months, we did the promotion and launched the product.”
Larsen then went on to become president of SAP’s North American business
unit and Eyre spent the next five years in other areas of SAP, honing
her business development skills in a variety of industries, from oil and
gas to pharmaceuticals. “I learned to be a professional consultative
salesperson,” she explains. Three months ago, Eyre joined Capgemini,
a French consulting firm, where she is developing business for IBM’s
brand products for Capgemini’s consulting practices within the manufacturing,
telecommunications, media, and entertainment industries. She is considering
one day using her high-tech business experience at a venture capital firm.
An avid art buff who frequents museums and galleries near her Dupont Circle
home in Washington, D.C., Eyre says her Goizueta MBA education taught
her the language of business that enabled her to confidently interact
with senior executives and contribute to her work environment and career.
—Diana Drake