Elon Business Fellows visit companies, learn about modern businesses in San Francisco

Twenty-seven Elon University junior and senior Business Fellows traveled to San Francisco Sept. 26-28 to network with employers and gain insight to various organizational cultures.

The fellows visited Google, Airbnb, VF Corporation, OpenTable, FactSet Research Systems and Managed by Q. These visits included meetings with top-level executives, company tours and informal sessions for the students to learn about company operations. The fellows also engaged with recruiters and internship coordinators in roundtable and panel discussions.

The company visits exposed the fellows to a wide array of business cultures that differed from what many of them had previously experienced. “The businesses on the West Coast had a more laid-back culture, involving more flexible hours, a casual dress code and an open layout of the office space,” said accounting major Kristen Lober ’18. “This showed us that it is important to pay attention to office location when applying for jobs.”

Several fellows were intrigued by the nontraditional office spaces at the start-up companies. “The Airbnb headquarters is by far the coolest office building I have ever seen, and was my favorite part of the trip,” said economics major Jack Cove ’17. “Without a single conventional office space, it was open and free flowing, and very unique.”

Cove added that he learned the importance of thinking outside the box from the visits. “These young companies clearly try new business strategies and methods, and not all of them work,” Cove said. “However, this willingness to fail certainly contributes to the rapid success of these organizations.”

The fellows also learned how the companies approach the challenges of making their employees feel valued and motivated. “The managers want the employees to love what they do and love where they work, and they accomplish this by allowing them to make a meaningful impact in the company, as well as making the office as comfortable and inspiring for them as possible,” Lober said.

This was the first time the Business Fellows program organized company visits in San Francisco. Fellows traditionally travel to New York in the fall to meet with executives and visit the New York Stock Exchange.

“We wanted to take students to the heart of Silicon Valley to expose them to a different work culture, start-ups and tech giants, and a city that is full of opportunity for bright, young people willing to work hard,” said Tina Das, director of the Business Fellows program.

The fellows were accompanied by:

• Tina Das, Lincoln Financial Professor of Economics
• Wonhi Synn, professor of finance and chair of the Department of Finance
• Brooke Buffington, associate director of career services for the Love School of Business
• Lauren Duffy, associate director of corporate and employer relations for the Love School of Business
• Tom Brinkley, executive director of the Student Professional Development Center.

About the Elon Business Fellows Program
The Elon Business Fellows program blends classroom learning and real-world experience to prepare emerging business professionals to take on the leadership challenges in their professions, their organizations and their communities. The program adds an extra dimension to fellows’ studies through dedicated team projects, specialized cohort classes, a Winter Term study abroad experience, company site visits in New York or San Francisco, a four-year professional development plan, and senior seminars that involve managing a $250,000 portfolio or consulting for a company.