U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Juan E. Rose III lets his military experience provide perspective when considering the task of balancing work, school and family life.
A student in the Executive MBA program at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, Rose’s leadership qualities earned him a John Wooden Global Leadership Award Fellowship. At the award ceremony, he was asked how he manages his busy schedule.
“When I met Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi, she said, ‘You’re a Marine on active duty in San Diego, you go to an Executive MBA program in Los Angeles and you have a family in Murrieta, Calif. How do you do this?’ I commute 40,000 miles a year and I’m working hard and learning every single minute. But my Marines and I are not getting shot at, so it’s OK,” Rose says.
Smart Business spoke with Rose about the MBA program and how it’s helped prepare him for entering the business world when he leaves military service.
Why did you enter the MBA program?
After 10 years of active duty, I’m looking to transition to the private sector and I’m using the MBA program to couple the leadership experience I have with more technical knowledge.
I’m a financial management officer in the Marine Corps; however, finance in the private sector is for-profit, levering debt, and managing, maintaining and acquiring assets. As a government-certified defense financial manager (CDFM), I’m more preoccupied with safeguarding and disbursing public funds, while accomplishing the mission with minimal resources. Profit is never a conversation we have.
How does the profit motive change things?
Profit stresses people in completely different ways. I’ve been afforded the opportunity to work as a consultant recently, and I’ve been working with a couple of clients as a student. I am learning every day that people manage risk in order to maximize profit; Marines manage risk in order to save lives. It still seems to me that if you focus on your employees — an invaluable asset — while managing risk, profit maximization will be a result.
To me, profit just changes the perspective. When you’re managing life or death situations, losing money is not as important. As a leader you can then focus on learning from the mistakes to ensure you and your team doesn’t allow that to happen again. The complexity of defense financial management in the military comes from the environment and the mission, not the application of financial assets.
When you start using debt and trying to maximize profit at all costs, there are a lot of strategies and different ways to do that. That’s what I am trying to obtain from the MBA program and so far it’s exceeding all of my initial expectations.
What type of job will you seek after graduation?
I’m leaning toward management consulting. It will give me the opportunity to work in teams and continue to learn about industry as a whole in several different arenas.
It’s important for me to bring value to a company that values its people and affords them the opportunity to be intellectually challenged. My No. 1 priority is to work in a company that gives back somehow.
My long-term goal is to be a professor and to continue to coach, mentor and inspire people. The most important part of what I’ve accomplished over the past 10 years is coaching, mentoring and inspiring Marines to exceed their own expectations.
I look at some of our professors who sacrifice and take time to do that for us. They are able to manage their professional aspirations and personal lives, while also continuing to educate us. That’s what I’m passionate about — paying forward what was done for me.
Juan E. Rose III is a MBA candidate at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. Reach him at (760) 458-7408 or [email protected].
For information on the MBA Program, Masters in Business Administration, UCLA Anderson School of Management, visit http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/x40700.xml.
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