Bruce Peterson, Vice President, SPSS MR Product Development, SPSS MR, Inc., Lake Forest MBA Class of 1998

Four years ago, Bruce Peterson knew he needed an MBA. To be able to move out of technical support for SPSS - where he managed a department dealing with programming and other technical issues - he needed to be able to think like a business leader. And though he already had a graduate degree from The University of Chicago, he knew that school's business program wasn't for him. "The University of Chicago has a very theoretical approach and I believe that business education isn't just learning a bunch of facts, figures and rules," he said. "I wanted a more practical approach that would give me skills and knowledge I could apply in the workplace."

He found that approach described in a mailing sent by The Lake Forest Graduate School of Management. The option of taking classes at the Chicago campus convinced Peterson he could earn the MBA he wanted without asking too much sacrifice from his young family.

"At LFGSM, the faculty taught me how to think and pose questions like a business person. I'm not sure how you communicate such an intangible benefit, but I believe that is singularly the most valuable contribution the program made for me."

"I know a lot of people at U of C and knew that its business program wasn't what I was looking for. I really liked LFGSM's emphasis on a general manager's perspective," he said. "In addition, I wanted to be able to get my degree without adversely impacting my family. Commuting from the Chicago campus was an easy walk down Adams to the Metra station. I got two hours of study time each day on the train and only spent one night each week away from my family." In fact, Peterson's youngest son was born while dad was learning financial accounting. A Hotchkiss Scholar, Peterson graduated in June 1998.

What Peterson got from his years at LFGSM is an entirely new mindset. "I knew I needed an MBA because I wasn't able to think the way business leaders think. At LFGSM, the faculty taught me how to think and pose questions like a business person. I'm not sure how you communicate such an intangible benefit, but I believe that is singularly the most valuable contribution the program made for me."

Thinking like a business leader has enabled Peterson to move out of tech support into other areas at SPSS. His first promotion, earned halfway through the LFGSM program, moved him into consulting for SPSS clients. Recently, he was recruited to work in SPSS' new data warehousing venture. "I'm now working on the financial side, with our domestic and international financial systems, using all the stuff I learned in financial accounting," he said.

Peterson sees himself as a liberator in his new position. "Information can be 'locked up' in so many different places in an organization. Some of that has to do with organizational structures and the way they developed. For example, international sales data may not typically be merged with domestic sales data," he said. "In data warehousing, we take the data, cleanse it, integrate it, and then store it in a way that makes it actionable. Marketing intelligence, internal metrics...all the information that's been locked up, I'm liberating."

"My LFGSM studies really gave me the tools I needed to be able to ask the right questions and to understand the range of possible solutions," he continued. "What I gained of greatest value was analysis and fundamental business skills. Lots of people know how to calculate net present value, but the whole idea is to wrap that in a framework. That really appealed to my sense of order. You do these things for a reason. LFGSM helped me be able to approach business challenges rationally so that I can evaluate the situation and choose the best course of action."

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