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Innovative approach: American Express technologies points the way to opportunity

When students think of American Express, finance normally comes to mind, but that is not true for Computer Information Systems majors involved with the Department of Information Systems Club (DISC). Recently, representatives of the company visited DISC to show the innovative work American Express Technologies does to support the global firm. Company representatives and students discussed the opportunities ahead for both American Express and the talented students that W. P. Carey produces.

2012-02-07

By Michael J Vaughn, Student Writer

One Thursday evening recently, 80 computer information systems (CIS) students gathered for an evening they would never forget. American Express was on campus to start a dialogue with them about innovation in technology, and where a future with American Express could lead.

The evening started much like any other Thursday night for students involved in the Department of Information Systems Club (DISC), but after finishing routine business, students heard a presentation from a corporate partner interested in recruiting talented students for technology-related positions. What made the American Express presentation so unique was the breadth of their presence, format of their presentation, and their high-impact delivery.

“American Express brought an army of people from their organization of different ages and amount of work experience. It helped students connect with the professionals and see the different opportunities American Express offers. The presenters were flexible and let the students’ questions guide the presentations,” said T.J. Wey, senior and Vice President of Corporate Relations for DISC. “It really made a difference with how the students reacted."

Up close

The sixteen professionals broke the eighty students into four groups and for presentations about a few divisions of American Express Technologies. Each presentation was run by professionals from that department within American Express, which allowed students to ask personalized and in-depth questions about the work and about American Express as a whole.

The format was challenging for both American Express and the students. According to Sathish Muthukrishnan, vice president of global network closed-loop capabilities and digital partnerships for American Express, “From our standpoint the challenge was ‘how do you break it down so that you don’t give them all this jargon that we take for granted in our own world, but make it real for the students? How do we tell them ‘Here is what we are doing every day, here is what you see in the market, and this is how it really happens in the background.’”

For Muthukrishnan, this meant effectively communicating American Express’ leverage of social media including Facebook and Foursquare. By working with these social channels, American Express is able to connect cardholder’s offline and online experience. Technologically, the process is complicated by the nature of the data.

“We take a lot of unstructured data, such as the customer likes and interests — what they call social graph in Facebook, use our information management systems to look at structured data such as customers’ spending habits, mine them to add value for the merchants and card holders,” said Muthukrishnan.

The other areas of American Express’ presentation involved similarly exciting technology for the students to explore. For example, the Enterprise Digital Technologies team discussed the movement towards mobile technology through the development of applications. American Express has quickly developed extensive applications for the iPhone, iPad, and is working with Android as well.

Digital transformation

As different as these technologies are, they all come together as American Express works towards what they call their "digital transformation."

“The digital transformation is the convergence of the online and offline experience. An example of that would be if I have my mobile device and I’m in a mall. I come up to a store. I can check the price on an item and see if this is the lowest price,” said David Woody Vice President for Technologies at American Express. “I could be on Foursquare and be offered a discount on my mobile phone while I’m standing in the mall. It really is moving to that digital transformation and alternate payment vehicles. How do we start to pay with our mobile phones as opposed to pulling out our credit card? That is a big, big growth area for us and that is really where we see the future.”

While the technology gave the students and American Express executives exciting topics to discuss, the format of the presentation made for a more intimate experience that fostered dialogue.

“It wasn’t just formalities of someone standing up in front presenting. This format provided more interaction with the students and allowed them to ask very specific and pointed questions in a less intimidating environment. It was just twenty students standing around talking to two or three of our folks,” said Woody.

The structure left students feeling a connection to American Express that they did not have before.

Senior CIS major Chas Tinker said, “You could see the different areas where you may be interested. We got really in-depth information on how we can impact the company by working in the different departments. I knew about American Express beforehand, but now I am interested in a specific division and can target my future application and potential interview towards that division.”

At the end of the day these presentations help students explore the different companies they may be interested in working for, and they help companies create the talent pipeline that they need to stay competitive. On that front, the presentation proved very effective both for students like Tinker and American Express.

“It is one thing to hear positive feedback on the session, but the real success to me is the fact that we had twenty ASU students, and I believe the best and brightest of them, applying for our summer internship opportunity and going through first round interviews this week,” said Woody.

A new formula for success?

With many students saying that the American Express presentation was the “best that DISC has ever had”, the question remains: how can other companies duplicate the success? American Express, while certainly innovative in the presentation, did not come up with the idea originally. Wey suggested to them that the students might respond better to individual workshops than one large presentation, and she was right.

Developing the individual presentations may seem intimidating or time consuming, but it was not for American Express because they repurposed presentations that had been used at internal career expos.

“Simply by taking that idea and knowing that we had already done it, at a similar type of event for the internal career expo, we just changed the format slightly to accommodate the presentations more for the student audience versus the professionals already in a technology organization,” said Woody.

American Express also brought more people than is customary for a DISC presentation — allowing for more intimate interaction between the professionals and the students, and making the presentation more relevant. While some companies might worry that their employees will not want to give up their personal time in the evenings, this may not be the case.

“I put the offer out there to have some folks come and join us at these presentations and I generally receive more replies back than I can accommodate,” said Woody. “People want to get involved. From our perspective, they want to share their knowledge. They want to look at and talk with the students in search of new talent. They want to share their experiences, and help people understand why they believe American Express is a place you may want to come and have your career.”

Having more people and breaking the students into smaller groups helps foster a dialogue, which pushes presentations to be flexible, but also makes presentations more relevant to the students the companies are trying to reach.

“ASU has very smart students judging by the questions that they were asking. I was surprised by how quickly they were able to grasp what we were doing, what the company was doing, what the company’s vision was. They started asking questions about it, from the revenue model to the operating model,” said Muthukrishnan. “They also asked about behind the scenes technologies. ‘What kind of technology are you using?’ ‘How are you supporting scale and volume?'”

Finally, companies should make presentations relevant to all levels of students and avoid giving a sales pitch. Students want to know about opportunities within the company, but they also need to understand it. The students who attend DISC meetings have a solid foundation in technology, but may lack knowledge of industry jargon. Presenters should think about being a student and what students may want to know about a company and about general advice they can give about technology careers in general.

Students also want to know how they can get involved, but companies should follow American Express’ lead and not spend too much time on the positions themselves. If students are engaged in the technology they will be more interested when an opportunity is presented.

One of the cardinal rules of presenting is to know the audience, and it is difficult to argue with the feedback American Express received. As Tinker said, “We need to have more presentations like the one American Express gave this year. It was the best we have ever had — it really broke down the company and engaged (the audience).”

The take-away for students? If engaging with industry professionals, meeting fellow students with an interest in technology, or growing through professional development opportunities interests you, you can attend DISC meetings any Thursday night. For companies interested in high potential recruits — explore how you can partner with DISC.

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