05/01/2015
Office of Admissions
The Fuqua School of Business
Duke University
ADDRESS
ADDRESS
City, State, Zip
To the Fuqua Admissions Committee:
I am head of Operational Excellence for the Separations Cluster at EMD Millipore. I have been S.’s
manager since April 2014. In the same month, S. was promoted ahead of schedule for the second time in
three years. He is currently the Lean & Six Sigma (LSS) Black Belt for two manufacturing sites in
Massachusetts. While I have only officially been his manager for a year, I have known S. since October
2011 because he worked for me on several projects with production operations. S. was promoted again
this year due to his outstanding work and knowledge development in the Operational Excellence
position.
S. stands out from the other 40 Black Belts at EMD Millipore because, even though he is less
experienced, he is one of the top trainers, based on class feedback scores, and one of the best performers,
based on cost savings, who leads a continuous improvement program at multiple sites. Teaching LSS
classes is not mandatory for Black Belts, and only 15 do so. However, S. voiced his interest in becoming
a trainer. After shadowing and teaching a few modules of two classes, S. taught his first class in April
2012. Since then, he has taught more than 15 classes and has demonstrated continuous selfimprovement, as evidenced by his improving feedback scores. He even went further when, in October
2013, he designed new content for setup reduction that has been well-received and used by the LSS
trainers.
In April 2014, S.’s role expanded to include the Danvers facility. In addition to working with the
engineers and manager, S. engaged line employees to get their improvement ideas. He launched the
Employee Proactive Identification Card program, or EPIC. Through EPIC, operators can submit
improvement ideas using EPIC cards that are reviewed and acted upon in a weekly meeting attended by
the management team, supervisors, and engineers. Whenever S. was on the manufacturing floor, he
would encourage operators to submit cards and made sure to provide updates to operators who
submitted ideas. To capture ideas electronically and display EPIC metrics, he developed a highly visual
and easy-to-use program in Excel. Only 4 months after the program started, 70 ideas have been collected
and more than half were implemented, resulting in saved materials and time. The Danvers site manager
told me that S.’s EPIC implementation has led to increased employee engagement, and other Millipore
sites are working with him to replicate the program.
In September 2014, I met Kristen, a logistics and infrastructure supervisor, in a meeting and found out
that S. mentored her through a LSS project. With her background in business administration, she lacked
a quantitative skillset, but she wanted to become Green Belt certified to switch into an operations role.
She said that S. was patient and encouraging, but he would never spoon-feed her anything. He would try
to understand her thought process and any misconceptions and then focus on teaching her “when” and
“why” to use a tool rather than just “how.” To assist Kristen better, S. also spent significant time to
understand the warehouse leasing process in-depth. Kristen was able to consolidate 4 warehouses into 1
and eliminate the need for 2 others. On the basis of that project, Kristen got her current role and
continues to use the tools she learned in other projects. This example is representative of how S.
interacts with others by being enthusiastic, understanding, and accommodating.
There are two areas where S. can work to become an even more effective manager and leader in the
future. He needs to effectively deal with conflict as, in the past, he avoided conflict if possible or
depended on me for advice. Additionally, S. needs to further develop persuasion skills, especially for
dealing with people who have strong personalities. In some instances, he has had trouble convincing
reluctant managers of his recommendations because he was intimidated by their experience, and he did
not pitch his ideas based on what mattered most to the managers. However, S. has been working to
improve in these areas. To better handle conflict, he consulted colleagues with more experience
managing conflict and worked with the employees’ managers to actively engage discordant employees.
He also took classes on negotiation and influencing through Boston University and Dale Carnegie
Training to work on driving action through commitment rather than compliance. The other area that I
feel Duke’s MBA program will develop S. is in the business finance area. He will need this development
as he continues to develop as a manager at EMD Millipore.
EMD Millipore is pleased to support S. for the Cross Continent MBA program at The Fuqua School of
Business. EMD Millipore will allow the time off for S. to complete all the class residency periods. In
addition, EMD Millipore understands that, as S. attends the program, he will be absorbing valuable
lessons that will provide immediate value to the company. Consequently, EMD Millipore will be
providing some financial sponsorship to S. in accordance with our reimbursement policies. S. has been
interested in going to business school for the past few years, and I am glad to be a part of his application
journey. I know he will be an active and contributing member of Fuqua and the greater Duke
community.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about S.’s candidacy.
Sincerely,
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