Meet Jorge Fukuda

Jorge is a first-year EMTM student, attending the program full-time.

Background

Jorge has worked at Corning in glass manufacturing and technology development for 14 years. At Corning's Japanese plant he developed a core bottom of draw (BOD) automation technology and, as the worldwide BOD manager, oversaw its implementation in the company's facilities in Kentucky, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. Jorge, who was born in Brazil and received his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from the Escola de Engenharia Industrial de Sao Jose de Campos, speaks several languages, and he would like to eventually help Corning expand its operations into mainland China. Currently based at Corning's Research Center in Corning, NY, he is a participant in the company's Global Leadership Program. Jorge thought EMTM would further prepare him for a larger management role within the company and help him make a stronger impact on its technology.

Why EMTM?

While Jorge was comfortable with his technology background and experience, he knew he needed to hone his management skills. Jorge first heard about EMTM through a colleague, Lori Hamilton, who completed the program in 2002. "She recommended it to me and I really didn't look elsewhere," he says. He did compare EMTM to executive MBA programs, but he felt that EMTM would supply him with the right tools to make better manufacturing and engineering decisions and as well as the authority to support those decisions. He liked the idea of continuing to work full-time and the ability to integrate his academic learning with his daily responsibilities at Corning. He also knew that EMTM would help him make connections and develop a pool of talent in his field to draw from in the future. "I'm still doing a lot of work in Asia, and we are seeing quite a bit of growth opportunity with China coming in. But as a manager, you can't do everything yourself. You have to have a pool of resources."

Benefits to Corning

With a full sponsorship from Corning, Jorge began EMTM in the Fall of 2004 and he believes he is developing skills that give him a "solid base for making decisions," both in process development and global management. Jorge has been able to expand the breadth of his technology understanding with electives such as Software Engineering and Modern Biotechnology. He has also been exposed to the different perspectives of his classmates, who come from industries as disparate as pharmaceuticals, software and finance.

Jorge's management electives have had a strong impact on his work at Corning. In Foundations of Leadership, he learned the importance of having a vision and has spent some time developing his own long-term technology vision. Equally influential was the Operations Management course, which he credits for helping him think about how to take his technology vision and implement it into the company's manufacturing process. Jorge is pleased that he can apply these lessons to his day-to-day experience and potentially reduce costs while simplifying the precision glass manufacturing process. "Currently we have a very complex, long production process and I now believe we can reduce it by one fifth."

Having had little previous exposure to his company's marketing group, Jorge has gained new insight from both the Decision Models and Marketing Strategies classes. "I now understand why they do what they do, what tools they use. It's also shown me how to market my own work internally to colleagues and that has had a positive impact."

While he previously worked with Americans at his post in Asia, Jorge feels that his close work with classmates on group projects has given him a better cultural understanding of American leadership styles. At Corning he has found that leading a new bottom of draw automation project in the U.S. has gone more smoothly as a result. "I've had the chance to work with a diverse group of business leaders, and I am now better prepared as a manager."

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