This spring my business partners and I attended the Certificate in Business Administration program at the University of Illinois of Chicago. This is the only program that I'm aware of that you actually develop a strategic plan for your own business, as opposed to theoretic case studies. It was an immensely helpful program in the sense that it forced our ownership and management team to think about the future and goals of our company and forced the discipline on us to develop a detailed plan for how to grow the business. I've been working for myself in partnerships for 17 years, and this is the first time we've had a clearly defined strategy with goals and objectives for growth and a plan for success. It's exciting.
Last Friday night was the graduation ceremony for the program. It was held at the Hyatt Lodge on the McDonalds corporate campus, a very nice facility. The keynote speaker was Evelyn Eckles (sp?), an 91 year old entrepreneur who started her own commercial travel agency in 1954, landed Pepsi, Westinghouse, and many others through creative and ingenious techniques. She sold her New York based agency in 1960 and moved to Chicago with her husband. She spent the next 30 years developing schools for travel and hospitality for the young and disadvantaged. She is an impressive woman, at any age.
Dinner, drinks, and conversation were good. Some of us went to an upscale bar/restaurant afterward, "The Clubhouse" in Oak Brook. It was a good night.
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