McGregor:

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I originally worked with General Motors in Delphi until very early 2001. I was a manager there until I took an early retirement. Actually, I was on our executive leadership team when I retired from the Vandalia location. And from there, I worked for a company called AMSEA.

I ended up being a consultant for Gem City Engineering. They asked me to prepare one of their divisions for sale. It was a division of about 140 people. So I did that. Through a lot of lean techniques and a vigilant management, we were able to turn that company around and we were able to sell it. And they asked me to stay on as a General Manager of that operation, which I did for a little over two years.

Then the owners of Behm Quartz came and asked me to run that company. Behm Quartz manufactured precision quartz products. We machined quartz for the semiconductor industry and sold the parts worldwide. The quartz went into machines that built semiconductor chips.

That company was in pretty bad shape. I was able to parley a pretty good deal to get some ownership of that company and turn it around. Actually I led that company as president and it became a successful company, doing well. We ended up having reps in Singapore, some into Taiwan, as well as in South Korea and places in Europe. I was president of Behm Quartz until one of the other partners wanted to buy it.

Now I am basically working as a consultant helping some of my friends’ businesses and just looking around for another opportunity.

I’m also currently the president of the Dayton Tooling and Manufacturing Association. We have over 300 member companies in the region – small and mid-sized manufacturing companies and companies that are associated with the manufacturing industry. And we are trying to promote and improve manufacturing within the Miami Valley region.

I completed my bachelor’s degree at Midwest in 1997 and my master’s degree at Midwest in 2002. I studied at Midwest during my time with GM and AMSEA. It was difficult to go to school and to basically run a company at the same time. I really wanted to do that. I really want to get that done.

It was actually very, very good because a lot of things that I learned along the way were so pertinent to running a business and the manufacturing business. But, I actually started my career outside the business world. I was an electrician and then I was a volunteer with the Peace Corps. I taught the basics of electricity to people in Africa and Arab nations. ^Top

Why did you choose McGregor?

I chose Midwest for a couple of reasons. I liked the smaller classrooms. I liked that there were people from all walks of life in there. And I liked the team interaction. I also liked the fact that it was available on Saturdays. ^Top

How did Midwest help you professionally?

Well, especially in the master’s program, Midwest helped me understand strategic planning better. I took classes on entrepreneurship, so I understood how to negotiate and to gain ownership of a company.

I think the most important thing that I learned was the importance of using an entire team to be successful in an organization. For me, it isn't based on my ability. It's based on the ability to get a team to work together and harnessing the knowledge of the entire team and being able to build that. That is one of the biggest things I learned.

My master’s program in Management had a very team-based atmosphere. There are a lot of dynamics of how to work with a team that I really didn't understand – that I thought I did – but I didn't. That’s interesting because I was leading teams as a manager at that time.

I learned a whole lot by actual hands-on experience. Hands-on experience at working with a team to try to reach a goal continuously – and understand and analyze the dynamics of the team and what occurred. So I'm happy. Midwest gave me a great laboratory of learning. Sort of the “Aha!” experience. ^Top

How has Midwest impacted you personally?

First of all, I was not a very strong writer. Writing always intimidated me. I went at it with the attitude that I was going to learn how to do this – that I was going to become a good writer – and worked at it and worked at it.

You have to do that at Midwest – you have to learn how to write. You have to learn how to communicate. So learning how to communicate, doing presentations correctly, speaking in front of people, communicating ideas and visions was a very big learning experience for me.

I also met a lot of very good people. I hired one of the instructors as a consultant to help me in my companies.

I’ve also had the opportunity to do speaking engagements and have been able to invite Midwest faculty and grads to speak on different topics. I've been able to go back and seek advice from instructors that I had for class, especially when I was actually purchasing a business. ^Top

What advice would you give to a new student?

I would tell them that it’s going to be difficult and they’re going to be really tempted to give up.

A lot is expected of them and they have to realize that you just have to stay the course. Once you get into a routine of doing it, it becomes much easier. For example, learning a musical instrument. How many people start learning a musical instrument and it takes a lot of practice. When you're playing a guitar, there's a lot of pain in your fingers when you’re learning it. Or when you're trying to play a woodwind instrument, you have to learn how to breathe. You continue to work on it.

Sometimes you might not see the progress right away. But the progress will come if you just stay the course with it. That's what I usually tell new students.

I also tell them, don't be afraid to tell instructors if you haven’t written a paper in 20 years. I'm not strong at this. I have some concerns. They will work with you.

When I started, I wasn't an honor or star student. I wouldn't even consider myself a star student today. I worked hard at it. You get out of it what you put into it.

There were plenty of times that I was thinking my work was just not good enough. And I think that that's probably common for us students. But, if you stay the course, you'll see your work improve. And you'll see your ability to be hired or your ability to be what you want to be – you’ll see it improve. It is possible to achieve.

It's important for me to let people know that it's never too late to go to school, that the important thing about life, to me, is continual education. Your mental ability, spiritual ability and your physical well-being are really three important things.

I think that Midwest tends to be a mental gymnasium. When you start going there you'll finding yourself changing as you would if you went to a gym everyday. People will start to know the difference.

You will be able to think differently – you’ll have new ways of thinking, new ways of looking at the world – and your conversation will improve in terms of your overall knowledge of things.

Midwest is a different type of an experience. You will learn more about yourself. You won't be doing so much memorization and then regurgitating an answer. You have to be able to assimilate the information and be able to use it. It's much more of a hands-on type of laboratory. For example, they may not give you grade or a test, but you still have to be able to prove that you understand the material and do the written work. It's not just walk in and show up and you're going to pass. It’s not going to happen. The validity and the importance of the degree would be degraded.

You have to dedicate time to do this. I don't think many prospective students are nearly as busy as I was when I went to school. It became really quite a juggling experience. I tell people, “If you really want do this, you’re going to do it. You’re going to work the time in. But you have to be willing to put the time in to do it.” ^Top