Educational background: Bowdoin College, French Language and Literature
Past position: M. Flynn Studio, Inc., Co-founder
Before coming to MIT Sloan I co-founded a women’s accessories business with my sister and it’s been great to have a real world business to directly apply all of the concepts I’ve been learning. Being able to step back and think about our products and our goals has been extremely helpful to the business. We’ve been able to focus more on what our advantages are and I am looking forward to bringing it up to the next level.
I did a summer internship with Coach, which was really interesting because a lot of my internship experience had been entrepreneurial, so it was neat to step out of that and get a different perspective from a larger corporation. Since then I’ve been working hard.
MIT Sloan has definitely made me realize how important strategic thinking is. This industry is really competitive. There is a lot out there and what is going to separate one company from another is having well-defined goals and strategies.
I was a French language and literature major. And part of what drew me to MIT Sloan is the diversity here. I love learning about different cultures — last year a group of thirty of us went to Columbia and this year we are going to Africa — and I hope to continue to develop my business internationally. All of our production currently takes place in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I lived there for a few years and I made good contacts so it is a way to keep the international aspect in my life.
The people I’ve met at MIT Sloan have really helped broaden my perspective. There are so many different kinds of people but there is humility in all of them. It doesn’t matter if they have a scientific or liberal arts background, I feel like everyone is willing to take the time and help each other out. I have just had a wonderful experience and I am really looking forward to getting back to the real world to see what I can do.
© 2013 MIT SLOAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT