What leads an individual to pursue an MBA? The motivations differ depending on the individual experience, perspective, and outcomes desired. Certainly, a strong and well-rounded graduate business degree can increase one’s knowledge base and professional opportunities. Yet in spite of reports that recruitment of women in MBA programs has remained relatively unchanged over the past fifteen years, there is a contingent of women who are bucking the trend and instead embrace the challenge and rewards an MBA can provide. What follows is a true tale of four women who did just that.
For ’99 alums Allison Cowan-Carroll, Leslie Jones, Andrea Lauer, and Doreen Linneman, the Goizueta MBA experience is one that they will always cherish. The women became close friends as classmates at the school, working as study partners and teammates on casework during their time in Goizueta’s full-time MBA Program. All acknowledge that the degree helped to catapult their career.
While they note the obstacles cited in a groundbreaking 2000 study “Women and the MBA: Gateway to Opportunity” (see sidebar on page 13), which revealed issues of work/life balance and a lack of female role models as considerations for forgoing the graduate business degree route, the four chose to actively pursue the degree anyway. Specifically, the backing they received from their families served to encourage them to enter Goizueta. “We have this in common,” says Lauer. “Our families taught us all to be independent and to know that we could do anything in life.” The women say that the support they received from the students, especially each other, as well as from the attentive Goizueta faculty, pushed them to work harder, even when the going became tough. The MBA program isn’t a cakewalk, they note, but the knowledge gained and the relationships garnered were well worth burning the midnight oil.
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Doreen Linneman ’99MBA says that she lives by the familiar Robert Frost poem The Road Not Taken (above), using it as motivation in her work and life. It was even the foundation for her new company’s name, The Riverbend Group, an Atlanta-based healthcare consulting and project outsource company. Today, each of the four women has achieved success in the business world, though they all found different paths to get there. Linneman’s path is that of the entrepreneur. One thing, however, the Goizueta MBA, they hold in common.
Hailing from the Philadelphia area, Linneman dreamed
of becoming an orthopedic surgeon for a professional sports team. After graduating with a major in English and a chemistry concentration from Vanderbilt University in 1993, she decided that learning more about the business side of medicine might be the right way to go. After working in medical equipment and pharmaceutical sales, Linneman says she knew it was time to pursue an MBA to expedite her career advancement. “Goizueta was a perfect fit for me,” she says. “The students were there to learn and to become better leaders—and they did this by working together, and not competing with one another.” Linneman then returned to healthcare via operations and consulting at Johnson & Johnson. She soon went to work in the healthcare information services industry in Atlanta, first in marketing and strategy at SYNAVANT and then as vice president of product marketing and business development for TriangularHealth. She founded The Riverbend Group in January 2003.
Linneman says that the four women affectionately refer
to themselves as the “Fly Girls,” adding that the group seems to “have it together both personally and professionally.” Despite hectic schedules and family commitments, all were in attendance at Cowan-Carroll’s wedding in July and at Lauer’s nuptials in 2000. In between visits, email and telephone calls fill in the gaps. Much of the conversation revolves around professional discussions. Says Linneman, “The strength of our friendship comes from the complexity of the bond.”
Andrea Lauer ’99MBA spearheads many of the group’s conference calls. A native of Kingsville, Texas, she originally went the liberal arts route. Lauer earned a journalism degree from Lehigh University in 1990, and then went on to work for the Hungarian Embassy and the Hungarian American Coalition, both based in Washington, D.C. “My mother founded the coalition, which to this day, represents American talents and interests and links them with Hungarian needs.”
The excitement of the sweeping changes occurring in Hungary and the possibility to explore her family’s roots convinced her to move there. At age twenty-five and armed with a working knowledge of the Hungarian language, she became the youngest director in the regional network of New York Times funded Centers for Independent Journalism. Lauer notes, “Acting as director of the Budapest-based Center was my first experience in management and one of the main reasons I got my MBA. I wanted to fill in the gaps in my background so that I could become a great all-around business manager and one day start my own business.”
She notes her biggest challenge in getting the MBA was her lack of a “comfort zone in any class dealing with financials. I am a word person, and as a type-A personality, as many MBAs are, I was used to being good at everything I did.” Extra hard work, and considerable support from the school and students, she says, helped broaden her knowledge base. After graduating from Goizueta and coming off an internship at IBM, Lauer landed a spot in the marketing leadership development program at IBM’s White Plains, N.Y. location, and eventually worked up to the post of global marketing manager in the learning services division.
Today, Lauer is married to Goizueta grad Barton Rice ’99MBA, and is living back in Atlanta. After taking a leave of absence to raise their eleven-month-old son, she admits quite a bit of soul-searching went on before she decided on how she would combine her professional and personal life. Lauer now works a part-time telecommuting position in market intelligence with IBM. Although some would consider her working situation enviable, she adds that there is never an easy answer when it comes to deciding between professional considerations and the role of parent. Luckily, she says that the “Fly Girls” remain supportive as always, and are there for an emergency lunch consultation or late night phone call. Lauer adds that she remains committed to exploring entrepreneurial opportunities. “The overall MBA experience at Goizueta and the skill set I acquired have given me the confidence to explore any and every opportunity that comes my way.”
Allison Cowan-Carroll ’99MBA, a Chattanooga, Tenn., native, knew she had to do something to jumpstart her career. “I was reaching a ceiling before business school, and I needed something to make me more marketable and to give me a direction that would inevitably provide for greater earning potential,” she notes. “I looked at all kinds of graduate programs and discovered that a business degree would serve me best.” After visiting Goizueta, she knew it was the right environment for her. “I felt that it was a place that was accepting of me and the experiences I brought to the table.” Like many young women, including Lauer, Cowan-Carroll took the liberal arts path initially, earning a BA in English from Dartmouth University in 1993. “I thought I was going to teach high school,” she says. “My dad reminded me to get a job that paid more than what I paid for college.”
After her undergraduate studies, Cowan-Carroll took her first “grownup position,” though she adds it was by no means her “dream job.” Being a young black woman working as a claims officer for State Farm in Augusta, Ga., gave her first-hand knowledge of sexism, racism and ageism. She met all kinds of people—many who would quickly judge her. Her work ethic won the clients over.
After Goizueta and armed with her newly marketable skills, Cowan-Carroll garnered a spot in Citigroup’s private bank management associate program in New York City, going on to become a relationship manager representing high net-worth clients. After four years with Citibank at various locations in the United States, and too many eleven-hour workdays, she realized that she didn’t want to keep that pace, particularly as her wedding date approached. “I had more options because of the MBA,” she adds. Cowan-Carroll recently started a position in Jacksonville, Fla., as a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch.
Similar to Cowan-Carroll, Leslie Jones ‘99MBA, says she wanted to broaden her professional outlook by garnering the MBA. With an accounting undergrad degree from Hampton University in 1993, Jones went on to work as a staff accountant for the Atlanta office of Ernst & Young, and eventually moved into minority recruiting there. She credits her employer for allowing her to work part-time, while she worked on the Goizueta MBA. She notes, “Goizueta had a great reputation, and that’s simply where I wanted to go. You have a one-on-one relationship with faculty, and they remember you by name. When you talk to students at larger schools, they spend more time with the teaching assistant.”
For Jones and her friends, the MBA experience also meant forming strong professional and personal ties with the students as well. While the “Fly Girls” acknowledge that their group is a racially diverse one, the thought patterns and the work ethic of the women transcends what they see as minor differences. “We all saw school not just for the educational value, but also for the relationship building,” says Jones. “Our friendship acted as a support group, encouraging those choices. We all wanted many of the same things—to have a meaningful career and to be just as successful in our personal life.” Jones was recently named a partner at her firm, and currently serves as the Americas director of the Office of Diversity Strategy & Development at Ernst & Young in Atlanta.
While the “Fly Girls” look favorably on the MBA, Goizueta and other business schools are now making an even greater effort to spread the word to more prospective female students, so that they also will find the degree just as viable an option. Jeanne Wilt, founder of the Forté Foundation, a nonprofit working to increase the number of female business leaders by boosting the flow of women into key educational gateways and business networks, notes that first and foremost, universities need to do a more effective marketing job on the MBA. Says Wilt, “It is such a broad degree. You could be a banker, a consultant, or lead a nonprofit.” As far as working with Goizueta and other business schools on recruiting events on undergraduate campuses, Wilt notes, “This is certainly a collaborative effort, and something to work on over time.”
Rhonda Harper ’88MBA, founder and CEO of the Marietta-based marketing consultancy RTM&J (Real Truth Marketing & Joy) and author of Seeking Joy: The Real Truth about Work/Life Balance—Women Corporate Executives Speak Out, notes that schools may need to consider just how to market the MBA correctly. “Women tend to take a holistic approach, so the entire experience must fit into their life aspirations, not just their career goals,” says Harper. “For many men the MBA is ‘something they do.’ The benefit may be that it makes them feel smarter, helping set the stage for career advancement. For women, however, the MBA may tend to be more about enhancing ‘who they are’ with the benefit of making them feel unique and special, resulting in life and business success.”
Goizueta grad Leslie Jones does note, “It was true that we wanted to build relationships at Goizueta, business and personal, that would last a lifetime.” Linneman adds that the Goizueta experience was one that allowed for a thorough education, taking into account the many factors at play in the modern business world. “In order to be a leader who can take a company or team to greatness, being an expert in a functional silo won’t cut it. You must have an understanding of not just each individual business component, but how they work together, impact each other, and drive the future for your business and industry as a synergistic engine. It is
not just marketing, finance, and O&M anymore. It’s also strategy, eBusiness, entrepreneurship, technology, international matters, ethics, business-law, and work/life balance.” She cites Associate Professor George Easton’s class in world class operations, Associate Professor Rick Gilkey’s course on work/life balance and leadership, and Senior Lecturer Earl Hill’s class on negotiations as just a few of the many that stood out for her.
Julie R. Barefoot, assistant dean and director of MBA Admissions at Goizueta, notes that unlike law or medical school, for instance, a selective MBA program looks for prospective students to have work experience under their belts. With the average age of the Goizueta MBA student in the twenty-six to twenty-seven range, and some older, life can often complicate academic pursuits. By this point in time, many women are getting married and having children, and this leads to difficult choices. Barefoot adds that the business profession has gotten a bad reputation as of late, but that the bad apples remain few and far between. “Part of what is frustrating for me is that I see the value and the flexibility of the degree,” she says. Graduates move on to the corporate realm, entrepreneurial opportunities, the nonprofit world, and a variety of other avenues.
Moreover, says Andrea S. Hershatter, assistant dean and director of the undergraduate program and senior lecturer in organization and management, women today have many more career and academic opportunities available to them, all competing with the MBA as a potential pathway. “As women pursue more balance between work and life, they are less likely to buy into an all-encompassing focus on careers that they may perceive as typical of an MBA-track.” she says. Luckily, Allison Cowan-Carroll is able to see things a little differently, noting, “We are blessed with the option to do so many things—climb the corporate ladder, jump off the corporate ladder, create our own path, take the job or leave it, or focus on being all that we can be for our families.” While the upside today is that women have more choices, the downside is that with more women taking alternative routes, the boardrooms will continue to be dominated by men.
For now, though, the “Fly Girls” are supporting the differing choices made by the women in the group. Linneman notes, “We respect where everyone is in their lives. When you find a group of people that you respect as fellow business women and peers, you simply can’t let that go.”
