Search for the Lost Dutchman's Gold

The week that followed my trip to New York was pretty packed. Our office was hosting BOTH the annual (domestic) Category Management Summit and the annual International Supply Chain Summit – i.e. we had A LOT of people wandering around the office.

There were about thirty people here for the Cat-Man summit, which started on Tuesday and went through Thursday, and about twenty here for Supply Chain, which was from Monday to Thursday. I spent my time bouncing back and forth between the two, attending the sessions that I thought I could get the most from. I know very little about category management, so I was lost for a majority of the first day, but once I picked up the lingo, I felt much more comfortable and learned a lot – it’s really interesting! I wouldn’t mind maybe working on that team eventually…

As for supply chain, Emmanuel, one of my supervisors, was leading that one, so I was much more “up to date” on what was happening there. Talking to the internationals was eye opening, though. I rarely consider the “how” of getting stuff into stores, I just like that it’s there (which is probably why I’m not great at SCM). And I really never think about logistics working differently in less developed countries, so hearing the issues the Argentineans are having with water was actually pretty interesting.

One of my favorite sessions was the Cat-Man “team building” piece. We played a board game of all things. It was called The Search for the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine. We were split into four teams of six and given jobs (Team Leader, Planner, Trader, Collaborator, etc.). We had 20 “days” to play and during that time we had to make it to the mine, mine gold, and make it back home. We were given “supplies” to allocate for the journey and a choice of three paths to take (each with its own challenges). We also had to plan ahead for unknown weather patterns (arctic blasts, floods, etc.). I kinda thought I’d stumbled into a supply chain board game – resource allocation, forecasting for the unknown, transportation choices, etc.  The goal, we were told, was to “mine as much gold as we can” before returning home.

We had 15 minutes to plan our strategy then we started playing. We all got pretty into the game – with the traders trying to make better deals and the collaborators turning into “spies” – and our strategy paid off pretty well (tho not well enough to win). That was where the “twist” came in. We asked the Commissioner at the end who had won, and his answer was,

“Do you remember what the goal was?”

“Sure,” we all thought, “mine as much gold as we can. So, who won?”

“No,” he says, “the goal was to mine as much gold as WE can. Not as much gold as each team can, but the group as a whole.”

*cue lightbulb moment* “…oh…oops”

We’d all gotten so focused on making strategic trades (i.e. getting what we needed while withholding anything that might help another team), that we’d actually impeded each other from helping the group as a whole – VERY category management appropriate. We then had a nice, long wrap-up session and discussed how our competitive natures can get in the way of helping other players so that we can grow the yogurt business AS A WHOLE, not just OUR company. Someone should show this game to General Mills…

The best part of the whole week, though? The AFTER work stuff. Since we had so many visitors in town, we took both groups out every night to show them the awesomeness that is Northwest Arkansas. Monday night we had dinner at Bonefish, Tuesday night we went to Table Mesa in Bentonville, and Wednesday we split into two groups for dinner – Supply Chain at Hog Haus and Cat-Man at Bordino’s (both in Fayettville, both fantastic). I opted to go with the Cat-Man group simply because I’d gotten to know them better…oh, and they were going to Bordino’s... Also, did I mention Dannon picked up the tab for ALL of this – drinks included? Yeah, like I said, best internship ever.

After dinner, since we were on Dickson Street already, we decided to experience some classic Fayettville culture…by going to Karaoke at Jose’s. The SCM people joined us, too. Wow, that was interesting. Especially seeing my boss (with his Barcelonan accent) sing Aerosmith. Great night.

On Thursday, I participated in several store visits with the SCM team. These usually involve going to the shelf, checking up on product availability, shelving, placement, facings, etc. It also involves checking the back room for in-stock numbers. For those of you have never been into the back of a Walmart – it’s not as impressive as I thought it would be. I’d imagined a well-organized and categorized world of tons and tons of stock. Nope. Most of the stock is out on the floor, so there’s very little kept in the back. On top of that, “well organized” is in the eye of the beholder. I mean, I know I go a bit overboard on the organizing occasionally, but still…

Kinda kills the mystery, huh?

So, after that busy week, my bosses decided they needed a vacation. Makes sense, right? Wanna know where they went? South Africa. For the World Cup. All of it. Yup, they’re gone for a month…whatever will I do with myself?

I have the Best. Internship. EVER.

Okay, so, intern orientation. I got to White Plains on Tuesday evening (after lugging my bags through the city’s biggest station, getting off at the wrong train stop and finding a taxi)…and the hotel did not have a room for me. Not the best beginning to the trip. As fate would have it, the other intern from my office, Justin, arrived just as I was checking in, so at least I wasn’t room-less and stranded alone. Everyone was really nice about the mix up though and we found me a room pretty quickly. I unpacked and relaxed for a little bit before heading down to dinner with the rest of the group – about 25 of us I’d say.

It was nice to have a informal ice-breaker type of activity before the official sessions start tomorrow. I got to know about half of the room (the other half was too far away to make conversation easy). There were people there from all over – New York, Ohio, Utah, Vermont, Boston, Texas – involved in a wide cross section of functions – HR, sales, accounting, analysis, marketing, research and development – and from all different education levels and backgrounds – undergrad, masters, PhD, business, engineering, food science. Overall it seemed like a pretty good group.

The next morning we were all bussed to HQ (and had yogurt for breakfast…anyone surprised?). We met the rest of the interns (about 35 in all) and began our sessions. Wednesday consisted mostly of “culture” information. We discussed CODE (“at Dannon, we’re Committed, Open, Doers, Empowered”) and the concept of HOPE (Humanism, Openness, Proximity, Enthusiasum) as well as the six pillar focus (Health Credibility, Nature, People, Blue Ocean, For All, Blockbuster). It was nice to learn the terminology everyone at the office has been using – conversations make MUCH more sense now! We broke for lunch, but I had to work because I had two huge reports due for Walmart the next day and only had internet access at the office. I got them mostly finished before it was time to leave for our Corporate Social Responsibility project.

We carpooled to the Food Bank of Westchester, and, after a brief overview and tour, we helped pack bags for the Backpack Program (a program started by a nurse in Arkansas that provides kids with food over long weekends and breaks) and helped dole out a gigantic box of macaroni into two pound bags for distribution. With so many of us there, the work went very quickly, and we were finished about an hour ahead of schedule. Once back at HQ, we had a quick wrap-up session, then were dismissed for the evening.

The group decided that the best way to spend our free evening would be to travel into the city for dinner. I made us dinner reservations and we caught the train to Grand Central. Once in the city, we stopped by Rockefeller Plaza for a few pics then had a fabulous dinner at Ruby Foo’s followed by cupcakes from the Magnolia Bakery and a tour of Times Square. We then decided to trek downtown a bit to see the Empire State Building. After that we were pretty much beat, so we took the subway back to Grand Central (that was a mini-adventure in itself), and headed back “home.”

The next day was at little more “information” filled than the first. A representative or two from each department came to visit the group and talked to us about what their department did. We heard from marketing, sales, R&D, procurement (“sourcing and supplier development”), supply chain, finance, and even had a session with some previous interns who are now working for Dannon full time. I would have preferred a more interactive layout (especially after lunch – which I worked through again – when we were fading a little), but the information was good.

What was really exciting was hearing about all of the international opportunities available with Dannon. They will do their best to help you work abroad (for any amount of time you’d like), and you don’t have to wait ten years like you do with most companies. They have what they call “exchange missions” where you basically swap places with someone who does your job function in another country (like France or Spain), they even help you with language classes! I would LOVE to do that, and I never considered I’d be able to so soon!

After our sessions, we all took a bus back into the city to Chelsea Piers. We then boarded a private boat for a dinner cruise around the city. Have you seen the episode of the Office where Michael takes everyone out on the “booze cruise?” It felt like I had walked into that episode – just minus the awkward tension and love triangle. We ate, drank, and mingled with the exces all to the backdrop of the sparkling New York skyline – so much fun!  Have I mentioned I have the BEST INTERNSHIP EVER?

That was pretty much it for orientation. We all had pretty early flights the next day, so we all said goodbye before heading off to bed. Dannon sent a car to drive me to the airport the next morning (see? awesome internship!) and I caught my flight to Memphis. I spent the rest of the weekend there watching one of my best friends from high school get married (congrats Holly & Will!) before finally heading back to Fayetteville. Boy, was Gigi happy to see me!

That’s all for today – I’m going to go finish watching the Spain v. Portugal game (¡Viva España!) Thanks for reading!

Free Week in NYC? Yes, please! Thanks, Dannon!

About a month ago Dannon sent me to White Plains, NY for Intern Orientation – awesome job perk, yes? If you’re wondering (as I was) where exactly White Plains is, it’s about thirty miles from Manhattan.

Now, this was awfully convenient seeing as my best friend lives in the city. I hadn’t seen her in about a year and had been trying to invent an excuse to make it up there and ta-da! Intern Training! It’s apparently pretty common for the interns to schedule their flights so that they get to NYC the weekend BEFORE training starts so that they can spend time in the city (and since Dannon was going to pay for me to go up there anyway, there was no additional cost to fly up early). I got to stay with Whitney for free, so it was probably the cheapest weekend I’ve ever spent in New York.

I actually got to stay for about four days, which felt a lot longer considering Whitney had all the fabulous things planned for us to do. She’s lived there for about a year now, so she’s been able to find all of the neat “local” hang outs (which translates to tourist free and cheaper – who wouldn’t like that?)

I got there late Friday night, and the first thing we did on Saturday morning was have tea (as an early birthday celebration – thanks Whit!) at Alice’s Tea Cup. Oh, it was precious. If you’ve been to Serendipity III, it’s very similar but cuter and less crowded. We had tea, roasted asparagus and pears, granola, yogurt and fresh fruit, and two perfect Nutella and raspberry crepes. A lovely way to start a Saturday.

The rest of the day was spent checking out a couple of neat, less traveled, New York City sites. First stop: the Cloisters – an old cathedral filled with a collection of medival Spanish and Italian treasures. Who would have thought an area like that was hidden in the middle of New York City?

After that: the High Line – once an above ground subway line, now a really long city park. Then, drinks at the Frying Pan – a ship that used to reside on the bottom of the Hudson that has since been converted into a restaurant and bar – and dinner at the Trailer Park – classy, huh? We did have a show to get to that night, but we made one last stop here: the Strand – miles and miles of new and used books. We could have wandered for days.

Whitney and I are both Broadway fans, so no trip to NYC would have been complete without a show or two. The first one we picked was Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. It’s an Off Broadway musical (at the Public) that tells the story of Andrew Jackson’s life…set to emo-rock (imagine Green Day meets the Patriot). It was hilarious! We had the best time. Not to mention, the tickets were only $25 each.

That wrapped up our Saturday. Given that we had exhausted ourselves the day before, Sunday was pretty relaxed. I went with Whitney to the class she teaches every week and we caught another show afterwards – Everyday Rapture with Sherrie Rene Scott. The musical is basically a one woman show that features Scott describing her journey from a Mennonite childhood to Broadway. Oh, and we scored those tickets for $10 each! It’s nice to have a BFF with connections. After the show, we had dinner in Central Park, made the evening service at Redeemer Pres, and headed home.

Monday was fairly laid back, too. We got up, walked the Brooklyn Bridge, had pizza at Grimaldi’s, and headed out to Coney Island…this was a bad plan. It was Memorial Day…oops. I have NEVER seen that many people on a boardwalk. After fighting our way through the crowd at the train station, then on the street, then down the boardwalk, we finally found a less crowded spot of beach. THEN, just as we put our towels down and got comfortable…the sun went behind a cloud. Not a little cloud, the kind that stretches on forever. It didn’t take long for us to start shivering and give up on beach time. We headed back to the station, fought through the crowd again, road the most packed subway car I’ve been on since my trip to Japan, ordered Indian take out and Pink Berry and watched BBC shows on Netflix – a much better plan.

Tuesday was my last day with Whit before heading to White Plains, so we kept it simple. Breakfast at the apartment, some packing, and lunch at one of our favorites – Ruby Foo’s (in Times Square). Then, she had to go to work, so I headed off to Grand Central to catch my train to White Plains (not the easiest of feats by myself seeing as my luggage was to heavy to carry comfortably up and down the subway stairs). I made it, though, and in one piece. More info on Orientation to come in the next post.

Razorback Relief

So much for a relaxing Saturday, but days like today are one reason I love Fayetteville.

I started out at the Farmers' Market down on the square. The main "wares" for sale now have gone from flowers to veggies, which always makes me wanna buy bags and bags of produce and cook a week's worth of yummy, fresh meals.

After the market I went to help out at Razorback Relief. A group called Numana organized this gigantic marathon of meal-relief-bag packing. They started last night (June 24th) at 7pm and packed bags for 24 hours straight.

Here are a couple of links with more information:
http://www.acumenholdings.com/razorback-relief/
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#!/razorbackrelief
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBEIBVYJaQ8&feature=player_embedded

I arrived about 10 am and I was shown to one of about 60 tables in our indoor track center. At the table were four huge tubs (one with vitamin powder, one with chicken flavored soy granules, one with dried beans, and one with rice). We were to measure out specific amounts of each into small bags, weigh them, seal them, and pack everything up in a box. The bags not only had cooking instructions and nutritional information, but this entire section on how to avoid scams. They said stuff like "Always know where your children are and who they are with," and "Remember: No one can force you to work in exchange for food, water, or drugs."

Here's a shot of what the insanity looked like:

I stayed for about 4 hours and our table alone packed about 2,000 bags. The atmosphere inside the arena was awesome - we called the hogs twice, sang the fight song, watched a competition between a table of Razorback football players and group of girl scouts (the Razorbacks won), and did a few rounds of Backstreet Boys sing-alongs (not our music choice...but fun still). While I was there we went from 800,000 bags packed to over 1,000,000! When we crossed that million bag mark the entire room erupted. It was a great four hours. (The last time I checked they had broken the world record and were headed towards 1.4 million meals! Go Hogs!)

 

After Razorback Relief I headed home. I had several loads of laundry to do, meals to make for next week, a puppy to check on, and a WORLD CUP game to watch.

Regarding said game - SO MUCH STRESS! Did you watch it? Oh, if the ball barely missed the net one more time, I think I might have had a heart attack. And I can't say it enough - Landon Donovan is WONDERFUL! We may have lost, but Uruguay will destroy Ghana in the next game, so all is well (and honestly, as long as Spain is still in it, I'm happy).

Now, I'm cuddled with the puppy on the couch, watching a movie on Netflix, trying to figure out which room to tackle next - the roommate and I have found a new place to live (yay!), so we're slowly starting to pack up the apartment.

That's all for now, dear readers, more to come this week (I promise I'll finally blog about New York...and give travel tips!) Check back soon!