Business Leader Meeting with Rob Smith: President of Lilly Foundation

Wednesday, July 20, 2011 by Corey Kime
Today we had the amazing opportunity of having Rob Smith come and speak to us at our Orr Fellow Business Leader Meeting.  Rob is the President of the Lilly Foundation and currently runs Lilly's Corporate Responsibility efforts.  Rob spent over an hour talking with us about issues ranging from the responsibility of corporations in today's age to initiatives that the Lilly Foundation is working on to improve education and health care both in Indianapolis as well as worldwide.  Below are a couple takeaways I had from his talk:
  • Just adding people will no longer solve the problem:  Rob talked with us about how not too long ago, simply adding educated people to a country's workforce and not necessarily worrying about productivity gains within that workforce would bring about increases in economic growth for the country.  That day in age is long gone now and becoming more productive as a workforce with less resources is driving economic growth much more than simply adding another body to the stem.  
  • Finding new and innovative ideas to solve big problems is as important now as it ever has been: Much of the time in conversation with Rob revolved around the issues that the Lilly Foundation has identified in education and health care and how they are trying to solve them.  One thing I found refreshing about his approach to solving issues was trying to find workable solutions on a small scale before advocating them on a large scale.  For example, in the education field, the Lilly Foundation doesn't try and solve entire country's problem in one big cash-flush solution, but instead they take small, but calculated, bets on Indianapolis and Indiana based initiatives that are innovative and take new approaches to solving problems of things such as getting more students to graduate and improving the quality of education.  Then if they see success in these smaller initiatives they advocate these solutions on a larger scale, thereby advocating for more proven and refined solutions then ones that are great in theory but may not be great in practice. 
It was obvious to all of us in attendance that Rob is extremely passionate about his job and has taken on great challenges in his time at Lilly.  Being able to have this kind of informal meeting with a highly respected and successful business leader is just another example of the exciting opportunities that the Orr Fellowship provides us.  Not only was this a great networking opportunity in Indianapolis for us as fellows, but it was a great learning opportunity that we wouldn't have gotten at a regular out of college job.  Business Leader Meetings like the one we had with Rob Smith today are just another reason that the Orr Fellowship is a great opportunity for college graduates!


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The Question Every College Senior Asks

Monday, August 16, 2010 by Corey Kime
About this time last year, I was winding down my summer job and gearing up for my last year of college at Indiana Wesleyan University.  Like most college seniors, one thought came up over and over again in mind:

What am I going to do after I graduate???

Fast-forward twelve months and not only have I settled down in a new job, but I have been exposed to opportunities that I never thought I would be this early out of college.  I was able to get this job through the Orr Fellowship, an organization dedicated to the development and retention of Indiana students and natives.  The fellowship seeks to match college graduates with high-growth companies in Indiana.  I was fortunate enough to be hired on at Compendium, one of many entrepreneurial companies in the Indianapolis area.

Since the start of my job two months ago I have been exposed to many different areas within Compendium that a normal entry-level job may not provide.  The accessibility to executives within your company and the hands on experience that I've gotten in just two months has been both exciting and a great opportunity to learn.  

Not only do you get a great job with one of the fast growing Indianapolis companies when you are in the fellowship, but you get to go through the fellowship with several other recent graduates just like you.  I have developed good friendships with several people in the fellowship and it has given me an instant network of recent grads in an area where I would not have had that big of a network without it.

So if you are about to head back to school for your senior year like I was twelve months ago right now wondering how you are going to find a job and what you are going to be doing, be sure to consider the Orr Fellowship.  The opportunity to work at high growth start-ups along with the instant network of friends your age is a tough combination to beat.

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