For AT&T: Immediate Corporate Returns

Jim McFarland (left), Vice President of AT&T's Worldwide Customer Service Business Division, points to Michael Mira, EMTM'01, as his top performer. McFarland, himself an MIT Sloan fellow, well understands the benefits of a management of technology degree. In fact, one of the main reasons McFarland initially recruited Mira to work with him was because Mira was enrolled in EMTM.

"EMTM allows its students to build a plan around an idea and then run all the doors and traps to get it to implementation," says McFarland. That's exactly what Michael did when he designed a scorecard measuring all the operational areas of the pre-merger AT&T Consumer Division, a business that encompassed nearly 60-million customer relationships. Because of the scorecard's success, McFarland requested that Michael transfer to AT&T's Business Division so that they could continue to work together.

Michael credits EMTM, including classes in Telecommunications, Entrepreneurship and the Strategic Management of Innovation, for honing his skills and giving him the resolve to become a more effective change agent, saying, "I can better communicate business issues using more quantitative analysis along with a view of the larger landscape of business and technology."

He was soon to put these skills and broader perspectives to test. Following the Sarbanes-Oxley Act signed into law in 2002, Michael was given responsibility for ensuring that AT&T was in compliance with the financial practices required by the new law. "My EMTM preparation was absolutely valuable. We had to look across the entire company and all business processes, to make sure that controls were place and to ensure that we were meeting all regulatory standards and accountability." In fact, he went beyond regulatory compliance and turned it into an opportunity to improve business processes at AT&T, creating greater predictability, productivity and consistency in setting and meeting customer expectations. AT&T's Sarbanes-Oxley program was recognized as one of the top programs among Fortune 500 firms.

"EMTM helps you move away from a silo view and look at things very broadly," says Michael. "It tuned up my ability to execute — to look at complex problems, to define solutions that can be implemented, and to align all of the different components and cultures within the organization that are needed to realize these solutions in practice. Good ideas are interesting, but in the end it's about execution. EMTM gave me the ability and the confidence to make it happen."