Meet Cornell Johnson’s MBA Class of 2018

Jeff Hughes

Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University

Describe yourself in 15 words or less: I’m driven by curiosity and committed to ending each day wiser than the last.

Hometown: St. Louis, MO

Fun Fact About Yourself:  One of my favorite memories is acting as MC at my younger sister’s wedding and opening with a 14-minute speech. Video evidence proves family and friends were laughing through to the self-deprecating end, despite me tripling my 5-minute allotment!  She’ll always be one of my closest friends.

Undergraduate School and Major: University of Missouri – Mechanical Engineering

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation: Newton Europe – Business Consultant/ Associate; Hagen & Co. – Consultant; Rockwell Automation – Sales Engineer (rotational program)

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: Moving to London to work for Newton was the most meaningful transition in my career. It was not only a change to an international environment, but also towards projects of much broader scope than I had encountered previously. One UK project required me to design and implement a cost-out program within manufacturing operations for a major grocer. However, it soon became clear that there was a substantial additional opportunity from a design standpoint in changing customer-facing aspects of the product.

Pursuing opportunity outside of the expected manufacturing improvement scope required gaining the approval of people across six nations – and even more opinions. It meant managing a two-pronged approach by delivering the originally expected plant productivity increases while separately managing new workstreams that included customer perception surveys, financial models tied to product spec changes, and reviews with corporate stakeholders. Discussing topics with senior clients, such as the need to embrace trade-offs while positioning for competitive advantage, was a sharp delineation from typical ops work. In the end, the proposed cross-functional changes gained corporate backing, were implemented without any schedule creep, and contributed 30 percent of the project’s $5M+ annual value to the client.

Looking back on your experience, what advice would you give to future business school applicants? The best advice I can give is to take a reflective approach to the process. In my case, the benefits of this were most evident while writing essays and interviewing. My best essays were written with less focus on notes from school websites, or even tours, and more trust in the value of writing about my personal ambitions. The most insightful feedback on my essays came from people entirely removed from the MBA “scene,” such as my friends in med school. I’d encourage others to compose an early essay draft that responds to the questions as if they were casually chatting with friends over drinks.

In terms of the interview, I made sure to be involved in activities during my visit, whether that meant attending club-sponsored social events or meeting current students with similar interests for lunch. These interactions helped put me in a relaxed frame of mind and provided genuine background for the interview.

What led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA? I was interested in a program that was of a reasonable size to allow personal relationships with faculty and good rapport with classmates. Johnson also has a strength in its curriculum, which uses immersion programs to tailor coursework to individual career interests and then to emphasize the classwork in semester-long consulting projects centered on issues facing existing businesses. Johnson has an exceptionally strong focus on building leadership skills for longer term success well beyond interviews or even the first couple of years with new employers.

The dean’s research projects, the school’s strong emphasis on feedback-based learning, and the consistent willingness of students and alumni to connect with applicants also got my attention and helped me to choose Johnson.

Tell us about your dream job or dream employer at this point in your life? My goal is to continue building on my experience in London by contributing as a consultant at a multinational firm. It’s an exciting time to be working in consulting, as firms are delivering broadly interesting projects that increasingly mix strategy and operations across both advisory and implementation approaches. I most enjoy work when it involves creative change, and I believe forward-looking ideas grow best in meritocratic and diverse environments like those consistently found in consultancies.

What would you like your business school peers to say about you after you graduate from this program? I’d like my peers to say that they learned as much from me as I did from them, especially since the education gained in business school comes as much from peer interaction as from academics. It would also be great to be remembered as someone always ready to share sincere enthusiasm, whether by providing unique challenge to ideas, helping tease out insights from a discussion, or being an encouraging listener to classmates’ goals.