Danny La Nuez, MBA
Senior Director, ERP Processes, major aerospace company
Teaching focus: Project Management, Mathematics

Where I come from

I earned my bachelor's degree in Industrial Management and my MBA from the University of South Florida. I began working in the aerospace industry in 1973 and have remained in this industry since then. In the last 12 years, I have had progressively more responsible senior management positions including being the site leader, market segment leader, director of contracts, and a director of program management. In my current role, I am involved in implementing SAP as an enterprise-wide software system and database driving a common way of operating as a business across all the multiple sites around the world.

Lessons Learned

In retrospect, three events were critical for my career growth and development. The first was making the transition into project management in the 1990s. The transition was difficult since I did not have a technical degree like most PMs but it provided motivation for me to hone my project management, communication and team skills. Successfully making that transition opened the door for senior level management positions.

A second factor was working on numerous large, complex contracts that required customer relationship management, communications, results-oriented performance and team dynamics in a virtual business landscape. These experiences provided a solid foundation of project management disciplines needed to effectively manage a wide spectrum of varying contract types and customers.

The final key event was assuming a role in the ERP implementation for a strategic business group. This provided a great opportunity to look across multiple business units with varying processes and practices. It provided insights into the challenges of making large-scale changes at a business enterprise level, where previously I had worked at the site level or in specific areas.

Practitioner skills vs. ivory-tower academics

I am a Six Sigma Black Belt. Six Sigma has been a big push at many world-class manufacturers to make sure that people have the tools for quantitative analysis and problem-solving so that fact-based decisions can be made. I have also completed the coursework for my Ph.D. in Organizational Development and Theory.

I have taught at Keller Graduate School of Management for ten years, and for another ten years elsewhere. I bring my training and diverse business background into the classroom. It is beneficial for students to know how both the theory and the practice of these disciplines work in the real-world business environment. Students want this practitioner perspective, not ivory-tower academics. They want tested methods and approaches to take back to their workplace to use every day and solve real business problems.

Win-win education

I teach because I have always valued education and the importance of life-long learning. I enjoy the student interaction and find that I learn as much from students as they do from me. It's a win-win situation. With every class I gain new insights and perspectives from students. For the students, they learn about how to apply concepts, tools, methods to become more effective managers and address issues that they face in the workplace.

Trial runs breed solutions-in class and on the job

My goal is to take the content, approaches and tools that we talk about and make them relevant for the students' own work experience. There are various ways to do that. We use case studies that reflect actual business scenarios - situations and problems that companies get themselves into, and how they deal with the consequences. There is an online discussion component where students participate and bring their own work experiences to bear. Resources within this dynamic learning platform provide reference materials they can use in class and on the job.

Choosing a class project that students can relate to and is relevant to them makes course concepts easier to understand and to apply. Students are encouraged to take a topic which is actually a work requirement and make it part of the project, so they can satisfy both work and class requirements at the same time.

Asking the right question

A highly interactive, practitioner-oriented approach helps students to learn for themselves beyond the classroom. Key to that is learning to ask the right kind of questions and to compare the answers to what you have experienced, observed and learned in other contexts.

At their best, class projects simulate a real-time workplace or workgroup meeting. They prepare the students to think about concepts, apply them, and get feedback on how well they are utilizing the concept. Does the proposed solution work or not? If not, what are the alternatives? People learn best and retain more when they are heavily engaged in the process. The small class size at Keller facilitates this style of learning.

Why Keller?

What sets Keller apart from traditional graduate degree programs is its practitioner-oriented approach, which utilizes the strengths of both students and the instructor. In addition, Keller offers an encouraging and motivating environment. It values independent thinkers. Faculty and staff are very focused on the success of the individual student.

Any advanced degree is a discriminator for jobs in the business world because of its competitive nature. A Keller degree goes beyond the norm by imparting skills and competencies that students can assimilate and use in rapid translation back into the workplace. Their company, which in many cases is subsidizing the tuition, wants to see that payback and that value return. Networking is another key benefit. Because of Keller's smaller class sizes, students create strong bonds with the instructors and their fellow students that last long beyond the class.