We arrived in Cleveland on Thursday night, but we had no
meetings on Friday. The three-day weekend was much needed. Even though Felipe
and I accomplished pretty much nothing, those three days were our first break
since the week after midterms. Even after finals finished, we were working on
setting up meetings for the summer, so time to relax was in limited quantity. I
lazed around in our AirBnB catching up on The Good Fight, only leaving my room
to eat.
Despite the relaxing nature of the weekend, it was also the scariest
part of the trip so far. There were no updates on the status of Felipe’s
international work permit, so there were significant questions about whether he
would be able to work during the summer. If the permit didn’t come soon, then
it would be possible that I might need to find a new partner. The uncertainty
of the situation was taking its toll on us.
Felipe spent the next two days calling people about his
status and preparing contingency plans for what would happen in the worst-case
scenario. Then, on Tuesday afternoon, he got an email saying that his permit
card was being processed. The worst was over, and right before our crucial trip
to Pittsburgh.
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Our meetings in Cleveland were primarily with investment
banks. I was aware that the firms were meeting with didn’t have the resources
of JP Morgan, but I was pretty clueless on what area they fit into. In the
first meeting, the president of one of the firms laid out the hierarchy of
investment banks, telling me about boutique firms. He explained that while boutique
firms are always competing with the bigger banks with more impressive resumes
and a larger pool of resources, the smaller firms utilized personal connection
with their clients to add a more welcoming human aspect to a deal. Evidently,
the strategy at least works part of the time, if not more, because the smaller
firms are still around.
On Tuesday evening, we had our meeting with a Princeton
alumnus on the business side of the Cleveland Indians. Sports teams rarely
donate, but they are always cool meetings, and as a sports journalist, I was
extremely excited for the meeting. After comparing our Princeton experiences, I
learned that the alum had a long career at Procter & Gamble before beginning
his job at the Indians.
I had a long conversation with him about the improvement
process that P & G implemented and how he took that way of thinking to the Indians.
A major point he made was the time required to make effective change – it took
multiple years to advance at P & G because you had to implement someone
else’s plan, make improvements and enact your changes, and then evaluate and revamp
your old plan for someone else. All along, you must constantly evaluate with
consistent metrics.
At the Indians, the alum told me that he spent the beginning
of his time there doing a deep dive into the processes that everyone uses, in
all levels of the organization, to see if there were any inconsistencies. He found
that the processes different people used to do the same task took different
amounts of time. By consolidating those processes into the Cleveland Indians
way, he was able to significantly improve the business side of the baseball
team.
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