20A – Growing Your Social Capital

Part 1:

1) Who they are and what their background is.

• Robert Anderson is a coworker back in my hometown who also does valet parking for Publix, and has been working there for nearly 10 years. Because of his expertise in parking cars and knows when there is a rush hour and has seen what spots fill up first and vice versa, he seemed like an expert in this industry.

2) Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot.

• I am filling this "slot" with the expert in my industry because he knows the system of parking cars and valet at Publix and could give me good insight with what the whole process is like, and if I could incorporate any of it.

3) A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.

• I found this person through work at Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen in Lakeland, Florida. I have known him for nearly 1 year now. I contacted him through texting him.

4) The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation? 

• I asked Robert about how the system works with valet parking and if he had any tips to give me on my app. He said that the cars generally pick the spots closest to the desired entrance or exit, and if I were to have people try to get an estimate by manually entering in data that they should have people closest to the desired spots and not as much as the ones no one wants. He told me good insight for trying to first get an estimate of how many people park and where they park. 

5) How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?

• Robert knowing the ins and outs of parking and getting a good insight on where customers prefer to park can enhance my ability to exploit an opportunity in parking apps

Part 2

1) Who they are and what their background is.

• Carol Saunders works with my dad and she tests different store systems for Publix. She has been working with store testing systems for around 15 years.

2) Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot.

• Carol would be classified as a market expert because she uses different systems and tests them, one system could be an app.

3) A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.

• I found Carol through my dad, when asking about this assignment. I then emailed her questions regarding testing different systems and the logistics of it. She gave me a lot of insightful procedures that she has to go through when testing out different store systems. 

4) The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation? 

• Carol informed me on how the procedures work throughout her team on store systems testers. They use many different procedures to ensure top quality and no bugs are involved. She also said that sometimes they could test the same system for a month just to ensure no problems when ran into the hundreds of stores throughout the southeastern part of the United States.

5) How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?

• Carol has many professional connections, especially in a very well-known company. She could help with my own knowledge as a college student trying to make an app work and the different systems that are involved with it.

Part 3

1) Who they are and what their background is.

• Sharma Kalpana also works for Publix and is in charge of supplying Publix with the best and brightest systems analysts. She is now head of the her own department for the Publix App.

2) Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot.

• Sharma would be the supplier to my industry since she "supplies" Publix with good employees.

3) A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.

• I found Sharma through my dad, who works for Publix and I contacted her via email.

4) The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation? 

• I emailed Sharma some basic questions on how she "supplies" Publix with brilliant people to help keep this company on point. She then told me that she goes through numerous hiring processes, including in-person interviews and even phone interviews. She will ask them basic questions like if they know what SQL is and if they have any background experience/knowledge. Or if they can even work in a team environment. 

5) How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?

• Sharma could help me run my own company one day and what to look for in people when hiring. 

Finally: This experience helped me with networking events in the future by allowing me to target specific needs I will have in the future, and how I can use their knowledge and professional connections to benefit my future company and overall profile. This experience differed from the past ones because it made me think of certain connections which eliminates a lot of people to narrow it down